Comeback Kid
by ffffuturelove
Summary: Sequel to Rebel Girl. Leia Allen has come back to Hogwarts for her sixth year, but not everything is what it seems. You should read it. Read, review, tell your friends. Romance/Humor/Drama
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Hey, Leia is back! Took a long time to finish this, but it's finally done! I'm in college now, so I will update when I have time, but fashion school takes up a lot of my time... Anyway, I am also looking for a beta, but am too lazy to find one. So, someone contact me and do it. It'll be nice. And FYI, the ending I have written for this is non-canon for HBP. So it's a surprise! Enjoy my fabulous readers!

Comback Kid -Sleigh Bells

"You snuck in to the _Chanel haute couture_ show?" Astoria Greengrass repeated with her mouth dropped.

"And Givenchy, and Valentino, and Dior. And the week before we gate crashed a bunch of the menswear shows." Leia Allen said with a smile on her face while speaking of the month she spent in Paris with her family. It was true, the Allen twins had snuck by many security men to get into the shows.

"Ah! I'm so jealous! How'd you do it?"

"Well, the first show we gate crashed was the Balmain menswear show, and we got in backstage by saying we were interns. We then ended up standing in the back because we were both too terrified to try and take someone else's seats. We talked to some of the models there and they helped us get into some of the other shows and after parties. It was fantastic."

Theo stared at the two with a smirk on his face. He only understood half of what they were talking about, but he was glad that Leia had decided to return to Hogwarts. The train was now almost boarded and a few late students were looking for compartments. Draco Malfoy walked past, stopping for a moment at their compartment. He almost touched the door handle, but then it appeared that he changed his mind because he walked away swiftly.

"He looks sick." She murmured. He did. Draco's clothes looked too big on him, which was odd, because he got all of his clothes tailored.

_He must of lost some weight recently… Is he eating?_

His face looked like it had lost all of its colour.

"That's an understatement." Theo said dreamily, like he wasn't talking to anyone in particular.

"Is it?" Leia said eyebrow cocked.

"Let's just say the Malfoy family's reputation isn't exactly fantastic and it's affecting him in ways he'd never expected."

"Because Papa Malfoy didn't get the prophecy and is in Azkaban." Astoria clarified rather than asked. Both looked at her in slight shock. Sure, Astoria was on the gossip train more than anyone else, but she almost always ignored political garble. "What?" She responded to their faces, "I live with Daphne."

"The trial was widely reported on. His face was all over _The Daily Profit._" Theo added with a sad tone to his voice, almost pity.

"We didn't get much news in France, only brief snit bits."

"Well, what happened in the Department of Mysteries has changed everything." he replied.

Leia nodded as memories of last year filled her head.

"God, that wasn't that long ago, was it? It feels like it's been a lifetime…" She muttered, as the train started moving.

"Well, it hasn't. Pansy's hair is rather short." Theo said.

Leia and Astoria both snorted.

"Last time I saw her she looked like Sinead O'Connor!" Astoria said laughing.

"What, really?" Leia replied. Astoria rolled her eyes.

_Fuck, I love Sinead O'Connor._

"Well, she either looks like Sinead O'Connor or like she has some terrible illness… Either way it's an improvement from before." Astoria said quickly.

"You're awful!" Theo said in equal laughter.

The three reminisced in last year's memories and this year's anticipations as the train passed by the Scottish countryside. Leia was excited about starting healing classes, Theo about advanced potions, and Astoria was pretty much convinced that her fourth year would be the same as her third. Theo agreed. They talked briefly about the Minister of Magic's realization that 'The Dark Lord' was back and lightly about the bridge attack, but then nothing more about uncomfortable subjects. In the back of Leia's head she kept asking herself exactly why she had decided to go back to Hogwarts, and apparently that's exactly what Theo had been thinking.

"So, Leia, you're back." Theo said after a few moments of silence after laughter at something Astoria had said.

"Yeah, yeah, that's happening…" Leia said while avoiding eye contact with Theo.

She knew Theo would bring this up.

"Why." He said in more of a statement than a question.

Leia cleared her throat.

"Uh I'm not totally sure, to tell you the truth. I told my parents that I didn't want to do the whole 'new kid' thing again, but that's not true. I guess maybe I feel some sort of attachment to this place. Maybe it's because of you two. I donno, but I don't even want to think about it…"

She almost mentioned that it was definitely not because of Draco Malfoy or Harry Potter's plea for her return.

"So this had nothing to do with Ddddrrr-" Astoria said with her eyebrows getting higher as she slowly started to pronounce Draco's name.

"No this has nothing to do with Draco Malfoy, Astoria so don't start." Leia said harshly and with blush almost starting on her cheeks.

"Nothing?"

"NOTHING."

"So, just to clarify, nothing?" Theo said, his lips curved.

"NOTHING YOU ASS HOLES." Leia said louder than she'd expected.

As if on cue, the train halted. It was the mark that her 6th year at Hogwarts had begun. Leia sighed and fallowed her peers towards the carriages that would take them to the Great Hall. In short moments they were sitting at a long table across from Theo and Astoria, slightly father away from the other Slyherins. Leia wasn't sure if that was intentional or not. She vaguely listened to Dumbledore's speech.

In the middle of the speech she couldn't help notice, like everyone else in the room, Draco Malfoy swiftly enter into the hall. He had a look of satisfaction on his face as he sat next to Pansy, whose hair was slightly longer than Sinead O'Connor and now looked more like a pixie cut resembling that of Twiggy, only brunette. Theo looked at Leia in confusion. They seemed to read each other's mind asking the same question: What was he doing?

As food appeared before them, a just as curious event happened: Harry Potter entered late, with a twinkle of blood dripping down his nose. He wiped it away. Theo and Leia's eyes met again, but now saying: What the fuck?

C_ocaine? _

As Leia was looking over to that side of the room, she caught eyes with Hermione Granger. She looked just as pretty as before, but now concerned for her friend's wellbeing. Granger at first looked surprised to see her then darted her eyes towards Harry and then back to Leia, asking Leia: You see this too?

For the rest of the meal Leia shifted uncomfortably in her Miu Miu black cotton-twill skirt. Her Acne boots felt too tight on her feet. The leather seemed to dig into her ankles as she felt Draco's gang send over the occasional glance. Hermione seemed to avoid eye contact with Leia, or maybe Leia was just paranoid. Leia just hoped she was paranoid.

The meal ended and while exciting the Great Hall, Leia broke from her friends to talk to the golden trio. She weaved her way through the sea of people towards a red hair that was the beacon that meant a Weasley. Just as Leia thought she was feet away from them, they were gone. She looked around in confusion.

They were gone.

Poof.

Leia stumbled back to the Slytherin common room in confusion. She wondered if the three had seen her coming closer and purposely disappeared. She had expected at least a thank you from Harry... Instead she found herself mumbling "pureblood" to gain access to the Slytherin common room. She sighed as she saw the group of elitist ass holes, that she knew all too well, in her own group's spot.

Pansy occupied Astoria's spot, Blaise lounged in Theo's chair, Draco sat where Leia would and Crabbe and Goyle awkwardly pulled up chairs to the small table in earnest to be involved. They all turned to Leia as she walked in the room.

As the majority of the group, save Draco, sent glaring looks in her direction, Snape's words rang in Leia's ears. His odd warning last year seemed only now applicable. 'I expect that he will be pushed to do things he could never imagine himself doing.' She looked at Draco's odd expression. He avoided eye contact and looked slightly shameful. For a second his eyes flickered towards hers and then down again.

Leia scanned the room to its farthest corner: where her two best friends sat on a window sill looking equally disgruntled.

"The little shits took our spot." Astoria said with a frown on her face as Leia approached.

"Astoria Greengrass! I say!" Theo said in faux astonishment.

"Whatever. How dare they steal our spots! Leia, you should scare them and get our spot back. Punch them in the face."

"Yes, Leia, I believe colonialism is in your starred and striped blood. Go take what we think is ours."

Leia rolled her eyes, ignoring that whole British colonialism thing.

"But they all gave me the stank eye." Leia groaned.

"Well I'm sure Christopher Columbus got his share of bad looks from the Native Americans." Theo said with a smirk on his face.

Leia laughed.

"Well, he was British."

"Well, Andrew Jackson must have gotten his share of nasty glances too."

"How do you know about American history?"

"I read."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"Okay. I'll only do this because I'm slightly impressed with Theo's knowledge of American history and if you two are my wingmen." Leia said, they nodded and couple looked towards one another and smiled as if they were having a small conversation in a language only they knew.

The three walked over to the small group that occupied their territory and Leia's brain scrambled for something to say.

"What do you want?" Pansy hissed when they were in talking range.

"I claim this table in the name of America, and as my forefathers did, I take this land that isn't really mine…. Seriously, you guys don't even fit here."

This sounded rational to her. This was a three person table and they had five. They had no real reason to bite her head off. The table was silent and they all looked up at Leia in confusion. Even Draco- oh, no, he was still avoiding looking at her. Pansy's look of surprise turned into a smirk. Leia's confidence was slightly shaken just by the look on Pansy's face. It seemed so much more conniving with her boy cut hair.

"Your secret is out, Leia." She said with a slow conviction.

Leia rolled her eyes.

"Oh really, Pansy? Which one?"

Leia expected some ridiculous lie that Pansy made up.

"We know about your blood."

"It's O Positive?"

"Well, after you and Theo split, he told us you were the product of one undeserving wizard and a should-be wizard, but no one really believed that because he stayed friends with you. But after the Malfoy trial, I had a lovely conversation with an Arnold Peasegood. When I mentioned I attended Hogwarts he frowned. He explained to me that his nephew, a squib, married a mudblood, and their child was attending the school. I asked who his great niece was, and he told me none other than Leia Allen-"

"Okay whateve-"

"I'm shocked Leia. You're worse than a mudblood or squib. It's kind of disgusting."

Leia was taken aback.

"Well-"

"Wouldn't that make your blood twice as filthy?"

"I don't think that's how biology works-"

"You're like a human genealogy experiment, it's cute. Will the third years study you in Care of Magical Creatures?" Pansy giggled.

"Pansy." Draco growled in a murmur.

"Well, whatever, but if you really want this table Leia, you don't have to bring in your nationality. You could have spit on the table and we wouldn't come within three feet of it."

Leia stared at Pansy for a long moment. She took a step closer towards Pansy and let a slow line of spit drop from her mouth onto the table. Wordlessly, Pansy stood up and the rest of the group followed her. Draco still made no eye contact, but it almost looked like there was a small smirk on his face. Leia's friend took their normal spots while pushing extra chairs out of their way.

"And that is how America does it." Leia said proudly. Her friends laughed and left the spit to dry on the table as a mark of their territory.

Leia was surprised by this whole interaction because she assumed that everyone already knew of her blood status. Apparently rumor was turned into fact. She was also suspired to hear of her great uncle Arnold Peasegood, a man who she had never met. She let it go because Leia was pretty sure that Pansy was the only one who actually made that big of a deal out of it. Still... Something inside her cracked a little. While Pansy's words were ridiculous, they still burned.


	2. Chapter 2

AN) Hey ya'll, chapter 2 of Comeback Kid. Enjoy, and please, please, please, review and tell your friends. Thanks!

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Chapter 2

Gimme Brains by Bratmobile

"Ah, and you must be Miss Allen?" the newly introduced Professor Slughorn bellowed with a glint in his eyes.

Leia was not awake enough to enjoy his cheery disposition. It's not that she isn't a morning person. It was just that last night she didn't sleep at all. She lay there with her eyes open feeling the hatred from her roommates penetrating from their dreams. It made her paranoid, because this time all of the rude comments, nasty glares, and painful whispers couldn't be blamed on false rumors. Instead, they were based on semi-factual information: her mother was indeed a muggle born and her father a squib. Sure, Leia knew that the prejudice that came with those facts were ridiculous, but that didn't make her feel any better.

"Yup, I'm that one..."

Her sentence had started out almost cheery, but then ended as a mumble.

Slughorn nodded and told her to stand with the others as he prepared his opener. Other students formed a small mob in the classroom before a set up of three potions, none of which were every interesting to Leia. Hermione Granger, on the other hand, seemed much more interesting.

"Leia, how was your summer?" Hermione asked when eye contact was made.

"Fantastic! I was in Paris for the majority of it causing ruckus. And you?"

"Nothing quite as fun, mostly spent with my parents."

"Unsurprising. However, I did notice a certain friend of ours bleeding from his nose when he entered the great hall..." Leia asked in a hushed tone.

"Well, it's to be believed that a certain blonde peer of ours stomped on his face a little..." Hermione said in an even more hushed tone as that 'certain blonde peer of ours' entered the classroom looking glum. Leia's mouth was opened in slightly amused awe.

"Is he okay?"

"The only thing that's really hurt is Harry's ego."

Leia snorted.

"Well it didn't even cheer up Malfoy's mood. He looks like his puppy just died..."

"Well Harry has a theory for that too..." Hermione murmured as Harry and Ron stumbled in almost late. Class then half started as the two got their books (after a small scuffle over something book-related that made the two boys look stupid).

Three potions were in front of the class, Hermione guess them all, as predicted. The second, and most interesting, was a love potion. It smelled different to everyone, like that person's most favorite smells or something. Leia was too far away to really get a whiff, but as the pot opened, the other girls dreamily inched toward the sent, thus re-enforcing gender-stereotypes.

At that moment, Leia felt a breath at her back whisper into her ear: "It smells like money and my father's approval."

Leia had to cover her mouth to fight back laugher. She turned to face Draco as he looked past her with a slight grin: the same look on his face that he had dawned last night when Leia spit on the table. It was a small gesture, but he never looked so happy while hanging around his "friends."

When the short lecture ended, students were told to go to workstations: ones that weren't separated by house but that were assumed as much. It was three to a table, so luckily the tables filled up quickly and Leia didn't have to sit at the "Pansy, Blasé, and Draco" table, but that also meant she couldn't be a plus one at the "Harry, Hermione, and Ron" table. However, Theo turned out to be in this class (he was hidden in the back during the lecture) and was Leia's only seatmate because the class didn't spilt evenly in threes.

As they started concocting the brew, Leia felt eyes on her. She turned swiftly to see Draco Malfoy's gaze upon her with lazy, sullen eyes. He didn't bother to look away, instead he kept his stare even as Leia turned her head. Being stared at normally made Leia's hair stand on end, but this time she felt more at ease, like she was protected… like he was protecting her.

The only thing that brought her out of that scary thought was the difficulty of this potion.

"What the fuck is this?" Leia groaned to Theo whose potion was looking no better than hers.

"More importantly, why is it that Potter is the only one who seems to be succeeding?" Theo grumbled as he glared slightly at The Chosen One. Leia craned her neck. He looked almost cheerful putting ingredients into his caldron. Leia knew of Harry's aversion to potions, which confused her more. Then she noticed what he was doing.

"What? He's _squashing_ those. It says to _cut_." She said in annoyance.

"How dare he improvise. This is potions class not smooth jazz or bebop."

Leia snorted.

"Alright Potter. Fuck the police." She said as she turned her knife sideways and squashed the magical ingredient.

The two Slytherins kept their eye on Harry's movements, which only worked about half of the time. Hermione kept blocking their view. _Thanks a lot, Hermione._ Both of their potions turned out just as crappy as the rest of the classes' weak attempts. Leia glared at him with the same distain as her peers when Harry accepted his vile of golden liquid.

"You're kidding, right?" Leia said sitting with the trio and others in the library. They acted civil but still awkward around her. She was grateful even for their uncomfortable acceptance of her in their group. She sat across from Harry the Boy Wonder as he made ridiculous accusations. Her brow was furrowed in frustration.

"What I saw what happened in Knockturn Ally? Hermione and Ron where there."

"No, I believe that part, but Malfoy a Death Eater? He's 16." Leia said using his surname. She felt it unfair to call him by his first name in this conversation.

"So?"

"You can't honestly believe that Voldey over there would trust some kid to join his little club? And even if he was, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be doing much. Maybe being like a mail carrier, or in charge of pulling pranks on muggle-borns or something else equally pointless and stupid. Even if he has gotten some the tattoo, which is unlikely that they just hand that out to anyone who wonders in to a meeting, I'm pretty sure they're not going to give Draco any real power that you should fret over."

"Leia's right, Harry…" Hermione agreed warily.

"I can't believe you two underestimate him! His father-"

"You know as well as I do that we do not choose who our parents are, Harry. And by the physical state of Malfoy I doubt that he's really enjoying himself with whatever he's doing. If he did join, I'd bet it was unwillingly. I feel like if he was excited about joining the family business that he'd at least have some skip in his step." Leia replied in a smooth, cool tone. She wasn't enjoying the direction in which this conversation was going.

"I don't think I've ever seen a death eater with a skip in their step." Harry muttered.

"Bellatrix Lestrange." Neville Longbottom said in a grim voice. All were silent for a moment as Neville's words sunk in.

Leia spoke first, looking Harry in the eyes with curiosity rather than anger.

"What does he look like?"

"Who"

"Voldemort. I just realized that if I saw he waltzing about the street I'd have no idea who he was. Know thy enemy, right?"

Harry cleared his throat.

"Uh, he looks a lot like a snake, actually."

"What?"

"Yeah, like he doesn't really have a nose, it's just two nostrils. His skin is this weird grey and his eyes are slits." Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Leia was still confused.

"Does he have arms?"

Harry actually laughed.

"Yeah, he's got arms and legs and everything. It's mostly the face and skin tone and his voice that gives off the snake-vibe."

Leia let out a surprised laugh.

"His voice?"

"It sounds snake-ish." Ron clarified.

Leia giggled a little more.

"He sounds so silly looking. He sounds like some weird super villain. Mr. Snake-man or something."

The rest of the table gave out small sounds of understanding laughter.

"He's a bit more intimidating in person." Harry said.

"Oh, no, I don't doubt that, it's just… I don't get it. I always imagined him looking like some shady person, but not like part animal. That's so weird! Does he have a tail?"

"I don't know… he wears robes and stuff so he might be hiding a tale."

Leia hid her face in giggles as the rest of the group laughed as well. They were then promptly kicked out of the library for the noise.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, you know the drill: read, review, tell friends. Or don't, because most of you aren't. I'm not taking it personally. Okay, I lied I totally am taking it personally, but I'll survive. Enjoy.

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Chapter 3

Gold on the Ceiling by The Black Keys

"Dirt." Leia said flatly.

Hermione's mouth dropped.

In Leia's current state, she wasn't exactly the symbol of perfection. Her very expensive clothes were splattered with brown dust, along with her face, hair, shoes, bag, and books. There were also small lines of blood trickling down in random places. Beyond the brown, Leia's face didn't look as much frustrated as it did tired. Leia had just been walking from eating her lunch down by the pond and was on her way to Into to Healing when she was ambushed.

_I'm in an outfit by The Row. Motherfuckingbitches._

"What happened?" Hermione asked tentatively.

Leia was pretty sure Hermione already knew the answer to that.

"I was walking here and Pansy 'n' Friends magically summoned handfuls of dirt at me. I'm pretty sure there were some rocks too."

Leia then magically cleaned herself up, a spell that also took away any evidence she might have had against her perpetrators.

"Leia, you really should have told someone before..." Hermione whispered sadly.

"I really don't want anyone else to know."

Hermione nodded knowingly and gave Leia a hug. The embrace caught Leia off guard.

_I didn't know Brits were huggers... _

Hermione's arms were probably tighter than a friendly norm and last a moment or two longer than what should have been comfortable. Leia got a whiff of Hermione's shampoo: fruity.

At first Pansy 'n' Friends had been somewhat clever. Their insults, prior to them becoming repetitive, were well thought out and carefully worded. Part of Leia was flattered that they would bother spending that much time on her. The other part was concerned that they focused so much energy just to try to ruin Leia's day.

"Do you have any fetuses to dissect, Leia? You should try mating with like a centaur or something! It'd be such a great science experiment! What, with your somehow semi-functional DNA, and centaur hooves! It'd be such a great learning experience."

"Did your parent meet at like a support group for people who are socially unacceptable by magical community standards or something? Or was it more of like a convention setting?"

"I've been wondering what your children will be like. I'm guessing that no self-respecting wizard would actually be the father to your spawn so it's more likely that you'll marry a muggle that just doesn't know what he's getting himself into! That should be interesting."

"Oh wow Leia! You can actually do spells! We're all so proud of you."

It was embarrassing considering that on her first day of attending Hogwarts she punched Draco Malfoy in the face. Her bad-ass facade was melting and mixing with the dirt that was being thwarted at her. What was even more embarrassing was that even in her group of 'friends,' that she could really relate too, she felt like the outcast. Harry, Ron, nor Hermione would only ask Leia to hang out with them if it was a bash-on-Draco-Malfoy session. She'd see them in the Great Hall or in Hogsmead, and they'd never go beyond a nod or a small wave of recognition. They'd never call her over for her to sit with them or even look genuinely happy when they saw her. She didn't feel like any of the semi-ex-DA members even liked her, much less wanted to be real friends. Theo and Astoria always seemed to be somewhere else… probably off being a young couple.

The ex-ish-DA members must think of her as a colleague, a work mate who is well qualified and works well, but outside the office is just a stranger.

Fuck, when even Draco treated her as a better friend than they did. Well, last year anyway. They hadn't spoken a word to eachother yet this year, due to Pansy always speaking for Draco. It almost seemed like she was protective of Draco, on some weird level. Leia was dreading the moment when she and Draco would have a real conversation, so she just mentally and physically avoided it. It worked, sort of.

Unfortunately, that conversation did come about.

"Happy Birthday early." Draco whispered in Leia's ear while she stood trying to find a particular book she was looking for. His presence made her jump and drop all the books in her hands on to her feet.

"Fucking hell, can't you talk to me like a normal person?" Leia half yelled. Those books were heavy. After many unnecessary apologies and assistance in picking up books from Draco, he said something Leia wasn't expecting.

"Would you sit down with me? I've wanted to speak to you and haven't gotten the chance."

Leia was taken aback.

_What the fuck is this, a business meeting?_

"Alright, chief."

Draco looked confused but just nodded.

As Leia sat down at a lonely table in the library, she realized why Draco had chosen this time to talk to her. There was no one there. They weren't even in the restricted section, but the place was deserted.

_I guess no one reads on the day before Halloween._

Draco didn't sit across from her, like she had expected, instead next to her with his chair facing Leia's direction. He spoke as soon as she sat down.

"I'm sorry I haven't gotten to talk to you sooner." He admitted while slightly avoiding eye contact.

"Why?" Leia said harshly.

"It's embarrassingly hard to get a moment alone with the goon squad on your trail and-"

"No I don't mean why haven't you talked to me, I mean _why are you sorry_."

Draco opened his mouth and then closed it. Silence loomed on for many moments.

"I think you know the answer to that question… I've missed you."

Leia rolled her eye at an otherwise slightly romantic moment.

"Oh, says Draco Malfoy, the guy who stomped on my friend's face and did nothing as Pansy tormented me. Yeah, I'm sure you miss me bunches." Leia said sarcastically. She had meant it to come our angrier, but instead it sounded playful.

"What? Isn't that how everyone shows their affection?" he joked before he paused. "Is Pansy really that bad? I mean I would have done something long ago, but I kept on remembering the whole spit take scene with you. I thought you could handle it."

Leia put her head down a little in shame.

_Yeah I thought I could handle her too._

"That came out wrong." Draco backtracked after realizing what he'd said. "I mean, I thought after last year Pansy wouldn't get this bad. I thought she'd be smarter than to mess with you. I'm sorry."

Leia nodded awkwardly, not quite sure why Draco was apologizing to her.

"I've sent a most of my clothes back home." She said after a moment.

Draco's eyes widened.

"Minimalism?"

"Ha, no, I just don't want them to ruin my favorite things so I sent some of my clothes away. They're expensive enough. I've kept things from J Crew, Zara, and H&M and three pairs of shoes. I'm such a spoiled bitch, but I can't handle them messing with my good clothing."

_Goodbye Stella McCartney skirts, Alexander Wang shirts, Acne sweaters, McQ capes, and Jimmy Choos…_

"Do you want me to talk her?"

"No. Not yet anyway."

Leia avoided eye contact and stood up. She hadn't meant to share this much with him.

"I'll talk to you later, Draco."

He didn't reply as she left the library.


	4. Chapter 4

New Chapter! Yee-ha. Enjoy. Review.

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Chapter 4

Babies on Fire by Die Antwood

Leia woke up the next morning, the day of her birthday and almost threw up when she lifted her head to see a gift on her bedside table wrapped in Slytherin emerald and silver. There was no mistaking that wrapping. It was from Draco. Leia's immediate reaction was feeling physically sick, but somehow she kept it down. She had some faint idea that he would try to pull this type of stunt with her.

_How the fuck…? That mother fucker. If the other girls see this I'm dead._

With that thought she snatched the gift and hid it under her covers, safe from the wondering eyes of her roommates. Leia then peered around from the safety of her duvet: everyone else was gone or asleep.

_Maybe no one saw..._

Then curiosity got the best of her. She ripped open the wrapping paper as quietly as she could to find a small note inside with a black box.

The card read in fine calligraphy:

_I didn't spend any money on this, I promise._

_-D_

She rolled her eyes as she opened the box. It was jewelry. It was a black necklace with a quarter-sized panther skull with small emeralds as eyes. It looked vintage, so he might have been telling the truth. She was most annoyed with the fact that she liked it.

_My patronus… Damn his good taste._

It was the only present she expected to receive today because she had asked her family to hold off until she came home for holiday. She had explicitly told her brother to tell her parents that it was due to the fact that she wanted to open the gifts in front of them, instead of the truth. She really didn't want to know what kind of gag Pansy would try to pull today, and what would only make matters worse was if she had presents for them to ruin.

She wore the necklace against her better judgment.

Leia had made plans to go down to Hogsmeade with Theo and Astoria on the promise that there would be no surprise party. She met her friends in the common room and headed out. It was cold for October, boyfriend coats and Doc Martens weather, which was normally Leia's favorite time to experiment with her outfits. However with the absence of 70% of her wardrobe and her usual effort, she just put on an old blazer, jeans, and a jumper. She stuck the pendent down her shirt. She didn't want to raise any questions about where she had gotten it.

The three stumbled their way down to Hogsmeade and agreed something warm from the Three Broomsticks seemed ideal.

As Leia walked inside, she found herself surprised by a tight hug. She recognized the person's smell immediately.

"Luke! You're killing me!" Leia tried to yell into her sibling's chest. He'd grown a fair five inches since she last saw him. Or maybe her height was different from the lack of heels.

As they pulled apart, she saw the worry on her sibling's face. He pulled her up to a secluded booth that was away from others. Astoria and Theo managed to disappear without Leia noticing.

"Happy Birthday, Us." Leia said unenthusiastically.

"It doesn't feel like a birthday this year."

Leia frowned. Back in her homeland turning 16 was a big deal, but today just felt like another day.

"How was London fashion week?" Leia asked changing the subject. It brightened his mood.

"I could only sneak into Westwood! That was great, as usual, but it's really difficult without you to hit on the male models!"

"That's no excuse! You could have hit on them if you tried."

"What am I supposed to say, 'I've noticed your lack of female anatomy and I quite like it?' I can't lie to them! Gay men already get enough bull-shit as it is."

"You're right, but that is the worst pick up line I've ever heard in my life. I hope you have better ones for picking up women."

Luke gave an odd smile. Leia saw through it immediately.

"What's her name?"

He scratched his head and shifted his weight. He was slightly embarrassed, and would be red if it was possible for an Allen to blush.

"Mariella Storm."

"Is this a character from a Fitzgerald novel?"

"Oh, she's very real. In fact, she has some Daisy qualities about her, but probably would be insulted if you ever brought it up. She listens to Otis Redding and wears mismatched socks. Her favorite book is Matilda, but her favorite movie is Harold and Maude. She's Jewish. You'd love her."

Leia smiled.

"She sounds pretty fantastic. Are you dating or stalking her?"

He paused.

"Well she would be really mad if I called it dating, but we're dating."

"How long?"

"About a month... I'm sorry I haven't told you, it's just... I've been worried."

"Why? Is she, like, on the verge of too unique and becoming a Zoe DeChanel character or something?"

He shook his head with a sad smile. He stared at his coffee and spoke to it.

"Leia I'm worried about you and your wellbeing."

Leia sighed.

_So am I._

"You don't have to continue going to this school. You don't have to deal with this anymore. You can leave with me today."

_That would be a pretty great birthday present: never having to see Pansy again_.

He looked at her hard. She reached behind her neck and undid the clasp on her necklace. She handed it over to her brother.

"I found that in a box on my bedside table this morning."

Luke's eyebrows pushed together while inspecting the panther's head.

"Who?"

"Draco." Leia said in a little more than a whisper.

At the sound of his name he dropped the necklace abruptly. It was the same reaction he'd have if she'd said it was found in a toilet.

"I don't think this is a very good idea, Leia."

Leia took the necklace back and looked down at her coffee.

"It's not a very good idea, it's a terrible idea." Leia said flatly. "It's stupid of me to even consider it. It was a bad idea last year, and now it's, like, ten times worse of an idea."

He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"Well if we were to make a pros and cons list, what would be the pros?"

Leia laughed. As a child, Luke would always suggest making pros and cons lists. He used to carry around paper to list the pros and cons of having tacos for dinner, wearing a blue shirt, calling a friend, or listening to The Flaming Lips... It was an annoying habit that Leia had grown to miss.

"Well, I guess it's be similar to dating a murderer in that-"

"I don't like where this is going."

"Let me finish, in that no matter what I'd do, he'd automatically be a little bit worse than me. Like I could yell at some little kid, but he was in a cult thing, so I still win in general personhood."

Luke covered his face.

"Okay that's one. You're a terrible person by the way, and if he's worse than you..."

Leia rolled her eyes and paused.

"He's witty."

"Two."

"He's well-traveled."

"Three."

"He has great taste."

"Four."

"He's kind of nice when he thinks you're a pure blood or not Harry Potter."

"Five."

"Draco's very thoughtful."

"Six."

"I think he _gets_ me… Like, I don't feel like I really have to explain myself a lot when I'm around him."

"Alright, seven."

"He's very loyal to his family. While it can be really frustrating for him to always stand by their side, I still really admire that about him."

"Eight."

"I think he's a good person, underneath it all. It can be hard to see, so whenever I see it, I feel really special. I want to see more of that…"

"Nine."

"This is going to sound really shallow, but I don't care. He's stupidly attractive, I mean this year he looks like he's starving and hasn't gone outside in months, but that's totally high fashion so I don't have a problem with it."

Luke snorted.

"Well, that's ten. But you're missing the most obvious one: he gives you birthday presents after you punched him in the face, and made him shit his pants, and distorted the gift he gave you. He still is fond of you even though it's socially unacceptable and possibly dangerous for you two to be together. I think he's 'in it to win it' for a lack of a better term. I don't think you understand, Leia, HE GIVES YOU THINGS AFTER YOU MADE HIM SHIT HIS PANTS."

Leia's eyes widened.

_Oh, yeah, that happened_.

"I'm a bad person." Leia said after a moment.

"You are a terrible person, Leia Allen. But he still likes you. While all of this is a terrible idea and I'm not suggesting anything, you need to appreciate that. I mean, if you made me shit my pants I would not love you and you are my twin sister."

Leia put the necklace back on and slid it under her shirt.

"I need to talk to some food about this."

Luke laughed.

"If running away from your feelings was an Olympic sport, you would have a gold medal."

Leia laughed.

"I totally would. If I excel at anything it's bottling up my feelings until I end up punching someone in the face."

"If only you could get paid for that, then we'd be in business."

"We could sell my feelings by the bottle."

"Oh yes, I'll take Leia's Sexual Tension, and pour it in a glass if you would." Luke said in a high fancy voice.

"I prefer Unrequited Love or Unearned Egotistical Self-Esteem." Leia said in a similar tone.

"Oh, I just remembered that I don't have any wizard money, so you'll have to pay for this coffee and my train ride back." Luke said shamelessly.

"How'd you pay for the train?"

"Some friendly stranger helped me out. I told him I'd pay him back and he said that we'd never see each other again do don't worry about it. God, what was his name... Something wizard-y."

"They all sound like weird fetish stripper names to me. Like, Blaise Zambini."

Luke chuckled, and then remembered.

"Remus Lupin. He said he'd heard of you."

Leia was surprised.

"Yes, he's a member of the order and was good friends with Harry Potter's father. That's so weird. I can only imagine what he's doing here..."

"Oh he didn't come here, he helped me out at the station. I don't know where he was going. By the way, what the fuck is a galleon?"

"It's like five-ish dollars, I think. Harry told me he never quite understood."

"You're good friends with him, Harry?"

"Not really. I bring some insight to the meetings, but I don't think he really likes me as a person."

"Well, you are a terrible person. A very charming, clever, and cultured person, but definitely still a little terrible." The twins shared a knowing smirk.

"Well, at least I'm not in a racist cult."

"Cheers to that!" Luke said while raising his cup.

The moment their cups clicked, Leia out of the side of her eye noticed Draco walking from the toilets looking worse than normal. He could have just vomited. They made eye contact for a moment before Draco exited the pub.

The twins talked for an hour or so after that, discussing Luke's crappy band, Leia'a healing classes, and what has changed at home. The two walked about Hogsmeade for the rest of the day, through every store from Honeydukes to Zonks. They parted ways once the sun started setting. Leia walked her brother over to the station.

"One last thing before I go." Luke said grabbing a thin square box from his coat pocket. Leia stomped her foot in protest.

"Luke, I sent your stuff by owl!"

His Etch-a-Skech costume was hard to wrap.

"I know, I know, and I'm breaking tradition this year, but just open it so I can leave."

Leia rolled her eyes.

It was a pair of pink brass knuckles.

"Luke, you shouldn't have." Leia said flatly.

_What the fuck._

"Next time Pansy talks to you: brass knuckles. She'll never mess with you again."

"Yeah, and I'll be charged with aggravated assault."

"But you'll be a bad-ass again. I'll see you, the train is leaving."

With that and a quick hug her brother left, leaving Leia confused and alone stumbling back towards Hogwarts.

_Where do my fingers even go in these things?_


	5. Chapter 5

Hey kids, just so you know, I've read some of the reviews asking for more Draco Malfoy in this story, and you guys are just gonna have to be patient! There is some more Draco in this chapter, but just you guys wait for chapter 6! And the rest of the story... But seriously, thank you so much to the handful of readers who decide to type some stuff into a thing and hit the submit review button. It literally makes my day. So read, review, tell your friends. You guys know the drill.

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Chapter 5

When Leia walked into Hogwarts, after her day at Hogsmeade, the halls were empty. It was strange, like while Leia was gone there was an alien invasion that killed everyone and she was the last human on earth.

_Man, I could have kept my clothes now that everyone I've ever known is dead._

Leia finally heard what sounded like human voices when she arrived at the Slytherin common room.

_Man, some people survived._

Students were in huddles all about the room, speaking in whispers. Leia found Theo and Astoria at the spit table.

"How is Luke?" Astoria asked Leia as she sat down, avoiding other possible questions.

"Fine, did someone die or something? What's happening?" Leia whispered to her friends. The other two looked at each other and seemed to agree that Theo better explain what happened.

"Did you see anything odd happen at the Three Broomsticks today?" He questioned.

"Other than my twin brother visiting me unannounced?"

"Well, apparently at some point Katie Bell went to visit the washroom, and came out with a wrapped package. She was with some friend, anonymous Griffyndor, and told her friend that she had to give this gift to Professor Dumbledore right away. This friend went back with her, but then all of the sudden Bell was trusted up in the air in some twisted re-inaction of the Exorcist. It turned out that the package carried a very powerful cursed necklace that touched Bell through a hole in the wrappings to a hole in her mitten. It's to believe that she was under the imperious curse. She's expected to be at Saint Mungo's for months. She's lucky to be alive."

Leia blinked for several moments.

"Holy shit." Leia blurted out for lack of better words.

"It gets worse..." Astoria mumbled.

"The golden trio happened to be walking along the same time that Bell was..." Theo said before making a crucifix gesture with his arms. "in the air. And Malfoy Jr. over there is at the top of Potter's suspect list, with no evidence of course."

Leia sighed and put her face in her hands as she remembered the look on Draco's face earlier today. His face had seemed worse than normal, but that's no reason to accuse him of trying to murder Dumbledore.

"God damnit." Leia exclaimed into her hands. "That little shit, I swear to God he blames Draco for everything from assassination attempts to bad weather. People can't believe him, right?"

"McGonigal and Snape don't, as far as anyone can tell."

"You don't think-" Astoria started.

"I have no idea what to think. However, it is a shame the Halloween party doesn't look like it's going to happen in the wake of this." Theo retorted.

"Oh darn." Leia said rolling her eyes. "by the way, did I mention that my brother got me a pair of brass knuckles for my birthday?"

"Why would he buy you those? He's not in a LA gang war or one of Abraham Lincoln's body guards."

Leia laughed at Theo's odd knack for offbeat cultural references.

"They're pink too."

"Oh well that does point to southern Californian gangs. I could imagine _cholas_ like to carry around pink brass knuckles."

"How do you know what a _chola_ is?"

Theo wiggled his eyebrows.

"I hear things." he said almost bragging.

"Brass knuckles are those things that look like a bunch of rings and hurt other people or something?" Astoria asked. She was understandably unfamiliar with muggle weaponry.

"Yeah, that's an almost accurate description." Leia replied with a snort.

"Are you here to pack up and leave?" Theo said abruptly while looking at Leia.

"What?" Astoria said, lost.

Leia rolled her eyes.

"Did my brother tell you that he offered to take me home?"

"No, no. But I figured that as close as you two are, he would know about all of the fun you're having here and become jealous and demand you go be miserable with him." Theo said sarcastically.

"Something like that. But no, I told him I would stay." Leia explained hoping that Theo wouldn't ask why.

"Why stay?" Astoria asked, slightly surprising Leia.

"Um..." Leia couldn't form words.

_Yeah guys, it's became I may or may not have potential feelings for Draco Malfoy 'cuz he gave me some bling._

"Is it because of that necklace that you're trying to hide under your shirt?" Astoria said, eyeing the bump in Leia's shirt.

"You noticed that?" Leia said, covering the bump up with her hand.

"I have very good observational skills." She said flatly.

"Even I didn't notice that. Did you get it as a birthday present, because I didn't get you anything." Theo drawled.

"God, with the two of you together I'll have no secrets, except for this one." Leia said patting her chest where the panther head shaped bump was.

"We can figure it out." Theo said nodding to his girlfriend.

"Without much difficulty." Astoria agreed.

The three dropped the necklace subject and continued to converse until dinner, and then simply moved locations to the great hall. When they got back, Theo and Astoria said they wanted some 'alone time,' so they left Leia alone to study from her healing textbook.

_Whatever, this stuff really is fascinating and it doesn't judge me for my jewelry choices._

She was in the middle of reading about how capillaries can be magically moved to speed up healing when the sound of someone clearing their throat brought her out of her book. She looked up to find the common room deserted and a tall, now thin, blonde boy standing in front of her awkwardly.

"So what does that mean?" he asked dropping himself down at her table, dangerously close to the spit that stained the wood.

"What does what mean?" she replied noting the irony as Draco put his left elbow on the table, now touching the stain. His head rested on his left hand, while slouching over and rubbing his eyes.

"You're wearing the necklace, but it's under your shirt. Does that mean you don't like it...?"

Draco's eyes lacked life in them and where staring at the ground a few feet from their table. His words might have seemed playful if he didn't look like he'd just been through hell. What used to be a light blond and carefully crafted hairstyle was now dull white and disheveled. His former Quidditch body was now boney. The fit of his clothes had gotten worse. He used to be a Dolce and Gabbana ad, but his present state was more of a 1980's Buffalo editorial. Yesterday he had even seemed a little happier when Leia was around, but today she couldn't even cheer his mood, as of yet. He could have been a little drunk.

"I like it a lot, actually. I didn't really want Theo and Astoria asking incriminating questions, much less my brother begging for juicy details."

Draco snorted and almost smiled.

"Yeah, I guess that makes more sense..." he said his 'smile' fading a little when he fully understood what her comment meant.

_I couldn't tell anyone… I mean I did, but it was probably a bad idea._

"Where did you get it?" Leia asked, slightly changing the subject.

"It was my mother's." He said while fishing the pendent from under her shirt. He rubbed his thumb over the bumps and ridges while he continued. "I mentioned your patronus, and she gave it to me to give to you. I don't ever remember her wearing it, so it's really not that weird at all."

_He mentioned me to his mother?_

Draco's mouth went into a lazy slack-jawed smile. He was too tired to deliver a joke properly. His hand dropped from the necklace and landed on the table with a thud. He didn't move it from it's out stretched position.

"Did someone tell you it was weird?"

"Our friend Theodore said it had a Freudian undertone. He knows too much."

_He knew about the necklace? Why doesn't he want me to know that he knew? Does Astoria know that he knew? What is Theo trying to hide? And what the fuck does 'he knows too much' mean?_

Leia chuckled to avoid her actual suspicions.

"So you and Theo are still friends?"

His poor excuse for a smile faded.

"In secret. He has a bit of a reputation now, because of you. Not that I'm blaming you or anything, it's more Pansy's fault than anyone else's."

Leia looked away from him feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry you have to do this... Sneaking around just to talk to your friends. It sucks."

"That is an accurate description."

A pause started in the conversation that might have started a tender moment, but Leia stopped that from happening.

"Where is everyone?"

"Getting ready for an ill-timed Halloween party."

"That's still going to happen?"

Draco's head snapped at that moment when he heard the noise of someone descending from one of the dorm room stairs. He instinctively stood up and made long strides towards the boys' dorms. A few first or second year Slytherin girls stepped down from their stairs, gossiping about something and walked down and across the common room.

Leia was a little insulted by Draco's actions. Actually, Leia was very insulted. He just bolted on the off chance that Pansy was walking down the stairs. What made her angrier was that she understood why he ran, and she probably would have done the same thing in his shoes.

Leia went back down to her book for a moment only to be interrupted by another boy walking down from his dorm's staircase. The lanky boy sat before Leia with a normal expression.

"So I've been informed that you and Draco are on speaking terms-"

Theo cut Leia off with a very stern look on his face.

"You can't say a word of it to anyone else. Not a soul. Do you understand?"

Leia was surprised by his intenseness.

"Yeah-"

"Not Astoria, not Luke, not a therapist, don't write it in a journal, even in a made up language. Promise me you will tell no one that, okay?"

"Theo, calm down, I promise."

Theo shifted in his seat and looked Leia in the eyes.

"Leia, look at me. It must not be known that Draco Malfoy has said anything to me this year. He probably told you because you're not going to hurt me for it. I cannot emphasize this enough, Leia, tell no one."

Leia nodded, and was about to ask why, when more people started going down the steps. She slipped the necklace back down her shirt as fast as she could. When it looked like the party was going to start soon, Leia left for the library so she could read in peace.

The place was empty except for a single student- Hermione Granger. Leia sat down next to her and Hermione only noticed her presence at the sound of Leia's book plopping down on the table.

"I was wondering if you'd show up here." Hermione murmured, smiling a little.

_God she's beautiful._

"Yeah, I think I had planned on coming here a while ago, unconsciously."

"Well, happy birthday, Leia."

_She remembered..._

Leia tucked some hair behind her ear.

_Is this what bashful feels like?_

"Yeah that happened today..."

"Did you celebrate?"

"Well my brother came into Hogsmead so we spent the day goofing around. That was good."

"I remember seeing him this morning. Is he doing well?"

"Yeah, he's seeing a girl now, so that's fun."

Hermione's eyes flickered and looked away. That comment obviously triggered something.

"Hermione..." Leia said, touching Hermione's outstretched hand gently. Leia could almost smell the salt on Hermione's few tears.

"I'm sorry, this is so stupid. I can't even hear about another relationship without getting all worked up. I can't bare to see him with her. It hurts."

She was referring to Ron and Lavender Brown, of course. Leia knew instinctively that Hermione had always had feelings towards Ron, and for Leia seeing her 'friend' heartbroken was painful for Leia.

_Was this what Draco felt last year when I was with Theo? Did it hurt him this much? Probably…_

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. And I don't get their thing. I feel like you're just such a superior person to Lavender in every way. You're smarter, funnier, kinder, prettier... I feel like he can't have any actual feelings for her when he has you right there. I wonder if he's scared of his feelings or doesn't know how to deal with them, so instead of facing them, he's pushing them away. And I'll be the first to say that avoiding emotions doesn't make them go away and it's stupid to try. At some point they're going to surface but then you won't have any control over them. Unfortunately, the way he's going to learn that is through hurting other people."

_If only I could take my own advice._

Hermione looked at Leia again, this time in the eyes. Her tears had weakened dramatically throughout Leia's monologue and she seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, other than the hint of pink that blushed across her cheeks.

"Leia, that was very insightful of you. Thank you. I feel a lot better now... I want to apologize, for this year. I know it's been hard for you and that we, or well, I haven't made it any easier. I know that Harry asked you to come back this year, and now that you've come back we haven't been very warm towards you, and I feel so bad about that. It's just that we worry... With you going back every night into the Slytherin dorm and we not being there to see what's happening. I trust you, but now that Harry's on this anti-Malfoy mission things have really changed... He's paranoid now. I think he's worried that you two are sleeping together and that you're betraying us. But I think he's much more concerned that he's wrong and he's pushing away a great friend and valuable part of our side. He really admires you, but right now he's questioning everything he knows. It's scary for all of us, and I think after today it will only get worse. But, I want you to know that I truly value your friendship."

Leia felt a tear roll down her face during Hermione's thoughtful words.

_That's all I really wanted to hear..._

"Thank you." Leia said after a moment, with a smile on her face.

They spent the rest of their evening in a comfortable silence. It wasn't until much later that the librarian asked the two to leave. Hermione walked Leia back to the Slytherin dorms, with her Griffyndor perfect badge allowing them to walk without question. They waved goodbye in a friendly way.

When Leia arrived in the common room, it seemed that the Halloween party and just gotten it's second wind. She walked through uninterested in whatever her half-drunk classmates were doing. Soon, after stepping over multiple people passed out, Leia found herself in her bed to an unhappy surprise.

They had tee-peed her bed. Of course. It wasn't even clever or difficult to take down, but more of an inconvenience. It took her less than a second to magically remove the toilet paper, but it wasn't what she had wanted as a birthday surprise. Once the toilet paper was gone, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She wasn't interested in over-analyzing what message Pansy and friend were trying to send.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey readers! New chapter. Enjoy it and tell me how amazing is. Or tell me you hate it because those comments are hilarious and kind of my favorites. Seriously. But I love all of you anyway. And you Draco fans can rest easy knowing that he's going to show up a lot more. Here you go:

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Chapter 6

You Know What I Mean by Cluts

A few nights later, Leia walked down the stairs of her dorm, into the Slytherin common room, with a wave of defeat.

She had expected the dungeon to be empty, due to the time of night, but there was one table lit by a small lamp and an occupied reader sitting there. He hadn't noticed her presence, because her Zara ballet flats made her footsteps silent. Leia sighed.

_Why does this feel like a sneak attack?_

She stumbled across the room, ungraceful with lack of sleep and inability to see in the dark, towards the reader. He only looked up when she hissed in pain from a piece of furniture running into her shin.

"Uh, hi." Leia said in a shaky voice. "They put mud in my bed."

Draco's brow furrowed.

"They what?"

"They put mud in my bed and made it magically impossible for me to get it out, so I'll have to deal with it in the morning. Until then, I was going to sleep on a couch in here, so I figured I'd alert you."

"Pansy put mud in your bed?"

"A little impressive, I guess."

"You wanna sit?" Draco scooted the chair across from him out a little. Leia shrugged and sat down. She was too tired to be cold to him.

"I've given up on actually sleeping anyway."

"Join the club."

Draco seemed just as tired as she felt.

Leia tried to get a glimpse at his book. Draco answered before she could ask.

"Restoring Magical Antiques: Volume Two, Time and Space Objects."

Leia blurted out a laugh.

"That would have probably been my third guess, anyway." Leia said sarcastically. "That is the most random thing... You restore antiques?"

"I'm working on a project." Draco paused. "Let's even the score on random knowledge about one another. Why don't you tell me something random about yourself?"

_This should be fun._

"My middle name is Lilith, based off of Hebrew myth of the Adam's first wife. Their marriage didn't work out because she refused to be subservient to him and so she was cast out of paradise and turned into a demon that is responsible for dead babies or something. So I was born to be a bad ass feminist."

Draco was surprised.

"Hmmm. Leia Lilith Allen. That's a pretty good one."

"Well, since we're awake tell me something I don't know about you."

"Daphne was my first kiss."

Leia's eyebrows rose in curiosity.

"Really? Was it any good?"

"Well she then took my virginity after that, so pretty terrible."

Leia laughed.

"We were so awkward, neither of us knew what we were doing. We were just blindly guessing and it was pretty bad. I came after four seconds. We haven't been alone with each other since."

Leia laughed a bit more.

"So who popped your cherry?"

Leia sighed and avoided eye contact. She knew her story would ruin Draco's frisky attitude. Her virginity story was always a buzz kill.

"My story isn't as fun as yours, but I guess it's only fair… Early eighth grade, so I was like 13 and it was to Scott Cooper, a senior in high school. He was 19, and in retrospect probably a budding pedophile. Uh, he was my English teacher's son and played drums in some shitty band, and my teacher handed out flyers to a show they were having and my friend and I went. I remember that he drummed shirtless, and that was really hot or something. We met after the show, and I said he reminded me of Dave Grohl and then he just kissed me on the mouth. I hadn't even told him my name at that point in the conversation, and just blam-o, kiss on the mouth. Anyway, I told him I was fifteen and he asked me for my number. We dated for like a month in secret and then he asked me over to his house when his parents weren't home. He gave me a glass of wine and we listened to some old Rolling Stone records in his room. He told me he knew I was 13, but that it didn't matter to him. We started making out and then he got a black towel from his bathroom and we did it. He also never called me again. So…"

Draco's eyes grew with more concern as she finished each sentence. When she finished, he didn't speak for a moment. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then finally spoke.

_That story never fails to ruin the mood._

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

"Oh, no, it wasn't like a traumatic event or anything. I mean, it's not the most fun story to share or anything, but I don't think of myself as a victim... Not yet anyway. Maybe when I'm nineteen and imagine how he felt I'll figure it out."

Silence.

"Anyway," she continued, "why are you not in your dorm? I have a hard time imagining that antiquing keeps you up at night."

Draco snorted a laugh.

"Yeah, well, you'd be surprised what keeps me up at night."

"Like what?"

He paused and looked at her intently.

"Like wondering about how you're doing."

Leia almost blushed and was surprised.

"Uh, pretty shitty, as I'm sure you can imagine. Pansy hasn't gotten any better... I'm taking the high road, for now at least, but the high road sucks."

Leia sighed again. She wasn't sure why she was telling Draco this, but it just came pouring out of her mouth. _Draco's the bully, remember?_

"Yeah, I'm normally a bully, aren't I?"

"Yeah, Draco, you have better things you could be doing with your time..."

"I know. But it becomes addictive. It's something that makes you feel in control when nothing else is."

Leia was silent for a moment as words sunk in.

"How are you, Draco? You seem distant."

Draco's eyes sunk a little.

"Distant is a good word. I'm not exactly having a fantastic time myself. My family is just..." his voice faded but Leia understood.

"I'm sorry." Leia said in a little more than a whisper. They both sat there motionless for several long seconds before Leia quietly moved over to one of the leather couches. To her pleasant surprise, Draco followed her.

With sleepy movements she found herself lying on the couch, horizontally, and spooning with Draco. She might have questioned their actions, but she suddenly felt exhausted with his arms wrapped around her.

She leaned into him. What really amazed her was how safe she felt in Draco's arms. His left arm was wrapped around her waist and might possibly be dawning the sign of a death eater- but it didn't even matter. Leia trusted Draco, even if it was stupid, irresponsible, reckless, and dangerous. She really just needed one person here that she could trust, and his breath felt really good on her neck.

Hours later, in the best sleep Leia's had since going to Hogwarts, Leia felt something against her back. It was hard.

_Oh._

_That's a penis._

_He has one of those._

Leia looked at the clock in the Slytherin common room and saw that it was almost 6. Probably time to not be found snuggling with Draco Malfoy. Leia slowly sat up, Draco's arms loosening their grasp as he awoke.

"What time is it?"

"5:53. It's about time..."

"What woke you up?"

Leia snorted.

"Your morning wood."

Draco covered his face and turned toward the interior of the couch. Leia snickered and swore she thought she could hear Draco laughing.

"I'll see you later." Leia said while standing up.

Draco turned his head so his eyes could meet hers.

"I think it'd be best, for your safety, if no one knew about this." He spoke in a low and even tone. Leia nodded.

_Yeah, that'd be awesome. 'So Mr. Death-eater and I had an awesome snuggle session all night long!'_

She walked toward her dorm praying that they hadn't messed with anymore of her shit.

"Good morning." Draco said as she walked away. Leia laughed.

_He's kinda weird kid, that Draco._


	7. Chapter 7

Hey, you guys know the drill. And, btw, yes, allycatwhatever, Leia's story about losing her virginity was strategic in her character and her thoughts about sex and sexuality. Read, enjoy, review, tell your friends. Love.

Chapter 7

Lay My Head Down by Band of Skulls

She was surprised how much a good night's sleep made her feel. She was sharper, quicker, and slightly cheerier. Leia even saw a visible difference in Draco. His skin didn't look nearly as gray as it did yesterday. She got Snape to fix her bed the next day, reluctantly. With no vital need for a common room sleepover, she slept in her bed that night. Well 'slept' is stretching it. She laid in her bed pretending like sleep would come. Finally, she drifted off to a few hours of sleep with thoughts of what she and Draco could have been doing together if she'd gone down and 'chatted' again.

The next morning Leia woke feeling as crappy as ever, and drifted through breakfast on 3 hours of sleep. Her eyes glazed over to Draco and friends to find him looking just as shitty as she felt. The next time she fully opened her eyes, she was in Potions and a note had appeared in front of her. It was folded neatly and had the letters 'LEIA' written in fine calligraphy. It took a moment to register that this note was intended for her and that she was meant to open it. Inside the message read:

_"Please visit me again tonight. I think you need a proper night's rest just as much as I do. I apologize for what will happen when this message disappears._

_-D"_

The note then turned into a crude drawing of something Leia refused to look at. She tore it into pieces before giving it a real glance. She frowned at Draco, keeping up an act, and threw the parchment into the bin. Theo didn't bother to ask what was on the note. Part of Leia wondered if he had already known.

She waited until she felt that the girls were asleep, and then with the help of a silencing charm, snuck out of the girl's dorm. Draco was waiting for her on their couch, holding the same book, but this time carried a pen and was scribbling notes alongside text.

He was still in his uniform black dress shirt and forever perfectly pressed trousers. Leia sat facing Draco with her legs bent, knees touching the edge of his book. She was in her silk black and white striped J Crew pajamas the cuffs of her shorts lying right above her knee.

"Did you tell Theo?" Leia asked in a smooth voice.

"No, but he's probably got it all figured out already." Draco murmured as he lent towards Leia. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes for a moment.

"How does he know _everything_?" She said keeping her eyes closed.

"No idea. But it becomes annoying when he guesses your masturbating material correctly on the first try."

Leia laughed while her eyes fluttered open.

"I couldn't help but notice that you're not preparing for the Quiddich game this weekend against Gryffindor. It will be Ron Wesley's first and they won't stop talking about it."

"Oh… I quit. I haven't gone to a practice this year. I've also been relieved of my Prefect duties."

"You're quite the rebel now. Just wondering, it's not like I would have gone anyway."

Leia closed her eyes again and snuggled into his shoulder.

_When did I become this affectionate to anyone, ever?_

She opened her eyes when she felt a blunt object drawing lines into her knee. She opened them to find Draco finishing a perfect spiral on the outside of her left knee. She made a noise of surprise.

"Did you have a stencil that I didn't see or something?"

Draco laughed.

"No I practice almost obsessively. Like, it's as if drawing the perfect downward spiral would cause the opposite effect on my life. Sometimes all I really want is an imperfect journey up and out of all of this."

Leia was surprised at how poetic that sounded.

"Imperfect?"

"Perfection is overrated. I can imagine perfection and live it in my dreams. There are no plot twists in perfection. Perfection makes for a bad story."

"Does that work? Drawing perfect downward spirals?"

"Well you're here right?"

Leia rolled her eyes.

"I really enjoy sleeping." She said trying to avoid any hints of personal enjoyment in Draco's presence. But she wasn't trying very hard.

"I find you oddly comfortable. You don't look it though."

"I guess it helps that you're now just as boney as I am without Quidditch. Not that I'm complaining. Maybe our boney-ness cancels each other out or something."

She sensed Draco smile as he nuzzled his head against her.

"I talked to Pansy. Have things been better?"

Leia paused for a moment. Nothing had happened since the mud incident.

"No news is good news, but thank you. How's the refurbishing going?"

"No news."

"That doesn't sound good news."

Draco wrapped an arm around Leia.

"The good news is I'm here with you... I can feel your eyes rolling, but I mean it."

Leia laughed quietly. She had rolled her eyes.

They sat in enjoyable silence until Leia lightly murmured.

"Harry is obsessing about you again. While this next bit might seem like advice from the enemy, I wouldn't discourage you from acting civil towards them or at the very least indifferent. You might want to try the idea of making it _at least_ difficult for them to hate you. I know it's made worse by the fact that Harry refuses to understand such a concept, but all I'm saying is it wouldn't hurt to not call Hermione a filthy mudblood when she picks up a book you dropped... Just a thought."

Draco sighed and Leia immediately regretted her suggestion. She wondered if he would push her away and spit ugly words at her. She prayed that the venerability that they've shown each other thus far wouldn't be thrown away in one breath.

"I wish I could. It's impulsive. And if I don't say awful things then they doubt my loyalty. I'll say things I don't even understand and somehow in their twisted logic it means that I'll die for their cause. I say things all the time and I can't believe I said them."

Leia laughed a little.

"I know that feeling, especially when I'm with you. But they're not lies. It's blurted out truths and confessions. Sometimes words fly out of my mouth and I see them before me and wonder who said them. I realize it's me and want to shove them back into my mouth. But you take them."

Leia stopped when she realized just what she had said. She just described the feeling she was currently feeling. She might as well have said, 'I trust you, Draco Malfoy, possible death eater, bully, general ass hole, and son of magical Hitler's BFF.'

"Thank you," he said in a quiet voice, "You-"

His voice broke in tears.

_Wut._

_He can cry?_

_He does that?_

Leia's mind came up with a thousand reasons for these tears: _he loves you, he's never had someone trust him like that before, he just heard that Tupac died, he trusts you but is unable to show it, he has a really sad Adele song suck in his head, his dad's in prison, his mother is in a depressed state since his father's incarceration, he cannot get the Dora theme song unstuck from his head and that's super frustrating, a family member of his died, he has a pain in his side, this restoration project is a metaphor for his life, he's still upset that Kurt Cobain died... Or he's a death eater. He doesn't deserve your trust and he knows it._

Leia focused on the Tupac one. She cried about that too.

Draco dropped his book and pen on the floor. They shuffled to a horizontal position on the couch, similar to their last position, but this time they faced each other. Leia nuzzled her head on his chest and Draco pressed his face into the top of her hair. She felt tears wet her hair and warm arms around her. Within minutes she felt the tears dry and sleep melt over her.

They woke up in a similar manner to the other morning, but minus the morning wood. They parted with bittersweet goodbyes. Their days weren't satisfying without one another.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry updating hasn't been up to my normal speed! Last week was midterms and super crazy and terrible and I barely slept and probably flunked them all. College is awesome. Anyway, this chapter is really just a lead up to the much more exciting one that will happen next, so just bare with me because all of these things are important! And now read and review and tell your friends. Thanks!

Chapter 8

Girls and Boys by Blur

Inside the library, four Griffyndors and a Slytherin met regularly. They spoke in hushed tones and stiffened their giggles.

"Is Nott still friends with him?"

This was Harry's new way of showing friendship toward Leia: he'd invite her to be with his friends and then interrogate her about Draco. It wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Harry, Theo really dislikes Draco's whole group... Pansy, Crabb, Goyle, even Blaise. He would support our cause given the choice, but his family ties make it difficult. And they also kind of hate him for spending time with me." Leia said, giving a diplomatic half-truthful answer.

"That didn't really answer my question."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"Harry, Theo spends half of his time with Astoria, a fourth with Astoria and me, and another fourth sleeping. At some point he goes to classes. I don't think he has time to hang out with Draco."

Harry seemed to accept that as an answer.

"Is it weird that he's dating a fourth year? They've been together long enough, he has to be shagging her." Ron said, half listening.

"I try to stay away from the details of their love life, but I know Theo's felt for her a long time... I can't really imagine either one of them with anyone else."

"Not even Theo with you?" Hermione said, enjoying the break from Draco-themed gossip.

"Theo? No." Leia said drawing out the 'o' of the 'no.' She had been working really hard to forget that 'Theo and Leia' was ever a thing.

"You two dated for a while." Harry said, now curious.

"What, like six months or something?" Ginny added in.

"It was more like four! And I don't think 'dating' is the right word."

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked Leia, smiling. At least she wasn't bursting into tears at the sound of someone else's relationship.

"It was more of a 'friends with benefits' relationship." Leia replied, really hoping this conversation would take another direction.

"Oh, really?" Ginny asked amusingly.

"Don't judge me, Ginny! He would stand around with me when I went out to smoke, we discussed Thomas Pynchon, and we fucked like three times a week. So what, we never had real romantic feeling for each other. Sue me for enjoying myself."

"Was it any good?" Ginny asked, making her brother blush.

_Like I would have stayed around him that long if it wasn't any good._

"I don't shag and brag! Well, not exactly..." Leia said, wondering if the 'fucked like three times a week' part was 'bragging' or if she was just stating facts.

"Who was bigger? Nott or Malfoy?" Ginny asked with a big smile on her face.

"Ginny!" Harry and Ron said at the same time. Leia was just laughing at this point.

"I'm not telling any of you that!"

"Okay, but what we really want to know is about Malfoy's cock. Just throw out a number in inches."

"God, Ginny, it's not like I had a ruler out!"

"Give a guess!"

"No. If you really want to know, just ask Pansy. I'm sure she can give you all the measurements you could ever want."

"You're kidding." Harry said, actually surprised to hear that Pansy knew those types of things.

"Not really. She's fucked the majority of them. Is this not common knowledge?"

"I knew that." Ginny said rolling her eyes.

"I knew she was with Malfoy for a while, but all of them?" Ron said a gasp.

"Well, I'm sure even she wouldn't fuck Crabb or Goyle."

Everyone laughed, even Hermione, who looked an uncomfortable near the end of the conversation. It was times like this when Leia honestly felt like she had made friends with Harry and Pals.

A little later, outside the library, Hermione pulled Leia over to the side.

"Hey, I was wondering if you could help me with some questions I had over the Healing reading."

"Yeah, sure, when?"

"Uh, how about a little after dinner, in the restricted section?"

Leia's brow furrowed a bit.

_Why would we be meeting in the restricted section?_

"Sure..."

"Oh, I found a book over there that gave another technique to prevent internal bleeding over there, so..."

"Oh, okay, that's cool."

"Great I'll see you then."

"Later."

After an uneventful dinner (other than the occasional look from Draco), Leia walked over to the library. It was Friday evening, an odd time to be studying, but Leia knew it would bother Hermione all weekend if she didn't figure it out then.

She walked in to find Hermione sitting there, looking straight ahead. There were no books on the table.

"Hermione? You alright?" Leia asked cautiously. This was the first time she'd be alone with Hermione since Leia's birthday. Hermione wasn't crying, she looked sad, but determined. Leia sat next to her, facing Hermione's side. Leia took Hermione's hand out of instinct. Leia had wondered earlier if this was really about some text book.

"Leia, I need something..." Hermione mumbled, not looking at Leia. Leia touched Hermione's far cheek gently and pulled it towards herself. With Hermione's face looking into her own, she realized just how intimate this moment was becoming.

"I need something, but I just can't put it into words..." Hermione said biting her lip.

_Woah, woah, woah, this isn't what I think it is, is it?_

"What is it?" Leia heard herself say.

In a dream-like moment, Hermione's lip's connected with Leia's ever-so-gently. Leia wondered what had triggered this.

_Is it Ron with Lavender? Is it because I'm not openly seeing anyone? _

_She can't have actual feelings for me... because that would be stupid and crazy and stupid crazy-balls._

_Wait. Hermione is kissing you. This is definitely stupid, crazy-balls._

Leia broke apart from Hermione at that thought.

"Why me? Why now?"

Hermione paused with their foreheads touching.

"I've had all this pent up feelings, and you've been so supportive... I've been thinking about you a lot... When I'm alone. And then this afternoon, when we were talking about you with Nott and Malfoy... I-I just got this feeling."

_Draco…_

"And I just want you so bad." She continued.

Hermione kissed Leia again, this time with more force. The extra 'umf' brought Leia back to reality. She broke apart quickly.

"I-I can't do this..." Leia said, standing.

Hermione didn't look hurt, she looked angry.

"Why? What-" Hermione paused, like she had it all figured out. "It's Draco, isn't it?"

She had definitely figured it all out.

_Cleverest bitch of her age all right._

"H-hey, since when are you two on a first name basis?" Leia said, making a bad joke to try and distract from the situation. The delivery would have been better without the stammer in her voice.

"Leia..." Hermione growled. "How dare you do this. To us. To the order. To yourself. It doesn't matter what he says to you. You'll always be the daughter of a mudblood and squib to him."

Her words felt like daggers. Leia was silent to avoid any more incriminating details that might slip out of her mouth. Leia took a few cautious steps back and then turned on her heel.

"You've chosen your side, I hope you know that now." Hermione said louder than she should have to Leia's back.

Leia kept on walking in fear that when she stopped that she wouldn't move again. She walked past the Slytherin common room. It wasn't even close to going to sleep yet, so there wasn't a point in being there with Pansy and friends.

She kept walking, aimlessly. She found herself slumped up against a stone wall in a lonely corridor. She curled herself into a ball, trying to get as small as possible.

After a few minutes, she felt warm hands wrapping around her shoulders. She leaned into his body, not needing to look up to know who it was. She uncoiled herself a little to hide into his ill-fitting but expensive suit. She smelled him.

"It's you, it's you, it's you, it's you..." one of them murmured to the other. Neither was sure who said it, but the both felt like it fit the moment. Draco stood, bringing Leia with him, and fumbled for a doorknob. It was only odd coincidence that Leia had happened to fall right in front of the Room of Requirement.


	9. Chapter 9

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Smut chapter! Yay! But you guys seriously need to review this more becuase I am swamped with college homework, hurricane stuff (I'm in Brooklyn, but everything's fine), and election everything that I totally forget I have to update this. Reviews help me remember this exists! I know, it's terrible, but come on, help a girl out! Thanks!

And this chapter is rated M for sex, obviously. So get excited.

Love!

Chapter 9

Solution: Burn It! by Sons of an Illustrious Father

Draco half dragged Leia over to a couch with a fireplace before it. The room was empty other than the black leather couch and red flames. If Leia was thinking better, she would have noticed that there wasn't a bed there. They sat there, sitting close enough so their sides touched but said nothing for long moments.

"Are you alright?" Draco said finally.

"In the library, Hermione kissed me."

"What?" Draco said, half jealous and half surprised.

"I hope you understand that this is totally confidential."

"Yes, but go on."

She realized that he would probably tell Theo, but Theo wasn't one to spread rumors, so she only really had to worry about two people judging her and Hermione. Leia could handle that.

"Well, she's been having trouble with Ron because he's seeing Lavender Brown. You have to understand that she's kind of a mess right now, so she isn't very responsible for her actions. She said that I had been so supportive or whatever, and then that she said that she'd thought about me when she's alone and she just needed someone to release all of this pent up energy with."

Draco seemed much more interested now. His eyebrows were raised very high as he looked at Leia, and she swore that she saw a shift in his pants.

"Go on." he almost demanded.

"Then she kissed me. I broke it off and stood up and said I couldn't do it. She then said 'there's somebody else, isn't there?' and I said the old 'you don't know what you're talking about' but she didn't buy it. Then she said that I was no longer welcomed on their side."

Leia might have skirted some of the truth, but it rounded up to being accurate.

"Really? Did you both mud-wrestle after that?"

Leia rolled her eyes at Draco's comment.

"No. But I would have kicked her ass."

"She wouldn't stand a chance. But that's really awful of her... just because you didn't want to be with her means that you're out of the club? She's mad."

Leia sighed.

"Well I was on thin ice as it was. None of them trusted me- not really. They all had wondered what I do when I recoil to my Slytherin dorm room. I imagine they think that I give hand jobs to your father or someone while spilling out the secrets of the day."

"Well my father's in Askaban, so they can cross that scenario off the list."

The room fell silent other than the crackle of fire.

_Oh right, I forgot about that..._

Leia's brows furrowed in thought.

"Draco, you don't deserve to go through this…" She whispered as she leaned on his shoulder. She wrapped her hand in his as she stared into the fire.

"It's so much easier to go through it with someone else." He said in a quieter voice.

Leia snuggled into him more and he took her chin in his hands and brought it to his face. When their lips met, a burn ran through both of their bodies. Leia moved her hands to his neck, in attempts to bring her face closer to his, and he pulled her closer still.

"This is a bad idea." Draco said, breaking apart for a moment.

"So is smoking, but I do that anyway." Leia said before pushing her lips on his again. He lightly pushed off of her again.

"Before we do anything, there is something you need to know." He said while unbuttoning the cuff on his left sleeve. He rolled it up to reveal black ink. Leia had sort of expected it, but she still sighed sadly. His pale and boney arm showed every detail of the dark mark. Every line was shown clearly on his parchment skin and that seemed to make it slightly more sinister. He looked at Leia with fear and worry in his eyes. It seemed like he was searching for approval.

"I won't tell anyone." She said, saying the first thought that came to her head.

"I know you won't…" He said, knowing that Leia would never be willing to say the implications that lead her to seeing the dark mark on his skin.

"Just please don't stop this now." Leia said shaking her head sadly. Draco responded quickly, cupping her face again and kissing her.

Leia had missed the feeling of him touching her. She had sometimes dreamt about the night they spent together and it created familiar warmth in her core. Her body reacted strongly to his hands touching her now. She found herself moaning to his every fingertip. Draco kept kissing her as he leaned her backwards until they were both horizontal. Leia kept her hands moving constantly. She wanted to touch all of him at once. Draco's hands were surprisingly unsteady at moments. This had come on suddenly, and Leia briefly wondered if he wasn't mentally prepared for this. But she knew he wouldn't back down now.

He paused when he need to breathe to leave caste kisses on her neck. Their breaths had become ragged. Leia curved her hips forward to meet his length. They both groaned as they felt the fabric of their clothing rub against their arousal. Draco took off Leia's shirt, an old gray tank from H&M. Her black satin bra had a red tint from the reflected fire. He pulled back a bra cup to reveal a taunt nipple. Leia felt her eyes roll to the back of her head as he attached his mouth to it. His hands roamed across her torso, down past the hem of her skirt. He reached under and felt the wetness of her panties. Leia cried out at his touch. She was clawing at his arms and back- leaving scratches where ever she went.

Draco lifted her skirt and removed his mouth from her nipple to lick his lips. He looked at her in the eyes for a moment and spoke in a whisper:

"I've been wanting to taste you again."

Leia could have come undone with that one sentence. She felt her breathing speed up when he pulled her panties off and spread her knees. She grabbed on to the leather couch as she felt the warm air from the fire mixed with his hot breath meet her core. His tongue went immediately to her bundle of nerves. He licked it lightly before sliding his tongue down her slit. Her legs wouldn't stay still, they were shaking and Draco had to hold them still. She kept her hands in his hair, not letting his head move away.

He explored her folds. She was moaning loudly while he made new trails around her labia with his tongue. He stayed there for a long time, licking every inch of her core and leaving Leia always on the verge of climax. He seemed to get lost in her. After endless moments, Draco moved a hand from her leg. He slid two fingers carefully inside her and attached his mouth to her clit. He started sucking on it, hard, as he pushed in and out of her. Leia came in seconds, crying out names of deities she didn't believe in. He rode out her orgasm with her, and licked her clean. When he finally put his head back up, she felt raw, almost sore.

He kissed her, and she tasted herself. He then whispered in her ear:

"You know how good you taste, don't you? I could eat you out all day. I love your cunt."

She grabbed his length through his pants, noticing he still had all of his clothes on. He moaned as she reached down his pants and felt his cock.

"I want this so bad." Leia said into his ear before biting his earlobe. She moved her hand away, only to unbutton his shirt. She had already wrinkled it badly from pulling it in different directions. She nearly ripped it off of him and then shoved his pants and underwear down. Abruptly, she leaned over and put his tip in her mouth.

He made a stupid sounding noise- a groan of sorts, when she started swirling her tongue around him. She rubbed her hands up and down his cock as she slid her mouth down farther. She started bobbing her head up and down as she started sucking harder. He held onto her hair as his hips started trusting on their own accord.

He said her name as a steady chant, growing louder and quieter at random moments. When she started rubbing her tongue over his vein, he pulled her off with a 'pop.'

"I want to be inside you- _now_." He said with an animalistic tone. He pushed her onto her back and leaned over her. Wasting no time, he pushed into her roughly. They both made a similar sound of pleasure at the connection.

Their bodies were hot against one another. Every touch burned each other's skin. Hot breaths tangled together. Their bodies matched perfectly. He fit her. With every thrust, he filled her fantastically. Their speed increased as they both felt impatient. Draco then put his hand down and squeezed her clit to an almost painful degree. Leia cried out while she tightened around him.

"I love making you cum." He whispered into her ear before putting his tongue down her throat. Her orgasm came out muffled into his mouth. His came only seconds after she did, giving her a second wave. They rode each other out until they could no longer move. Draco laid on top of her for a moment, then sat up and crept down to the stone floor and ushered Leia to follow. She curled up beside him, surprised at how good the cool stone felt mixed with the heat of their bodies and the heat of the fire.

A little while later, after resting in silence, Leia half lied on top of Draco, putting her face into the crook of his neck. With one hand he drew spirals on her back with a lazy finger.

"Why don't you hate me?" he asked almost absent-mindedly.

"I've tried not to put too much thought into it."

_That was a lie. The truth is I have no fucking idea why I thought this was okay._

"I think you have too many fantastic qualities for me to hate you over some tattoo."

She felt Draco's chest move as he chuckled.

"Thank you."

"It's the least that I can do."

_What?_

_That doesn't even make sense. _

_Leia Lilith Allen, you are a stupid hoe._

_This is the worst thing ever, are you too fat to figure that out?!_

Leia's brain was too busy coming up with new insults to throw at herself that she missed something Draco had said.

"What?"

"I asked, what were you thinking about? You seem really deep into some philosophical theory or something."

Leia figured lying was the safest bet out of this.

"Why is there sometimes a small layer of water above yogurt? I call it yogurt water, but it's always been a mystery to me."

Draco snorted.

"We just had sex and you admitted to not seeing any issue with me carrying the dark mark and you expect me to believe that you're thinking about dairy products? Bullocks."

Leia groaned a little. His clichéd British slang didn't make him sound any less intelligent, like she wished it had.

"You're bullocks." she replied in a bad British accent. "And I don't care to tell you all my secrets so you can just make something up."

"Okay. I'm pretending that you were comparing Theo and I. Theo might be willing to do some Oedipus Rex role-play, but he never made you make those sounds before."

Leia laughed.

"You don't know what Oedipus Rex is, do you?"

"No."

Leia laughed more.

"Okay, Miss Allen, please be do gracious as to fill me in on the story of Oedipus and Rex."

"No, Draco, Oedipus Rex is a person, the protagonist of the tragic play. Okay, so imagine a different world: Greece in 500ish BC."

"Oh, I'm excited."

"A king rules, named Oedipus Senior or something, I don't remember, and he like raped some kid, or something really weird like that, a while back so the Gods are, like not okay with that, and he's on thin ice to start off with. Then his wife is pregnant and a physic tells Oedipus Senior that his son will kill him, so the king is like, 'Oh shit, better make sure my son never meets me.' So he gives his son anyway or something, whatever the kid becomes an orphan."

"Wait, wouldn't the physic have foreseen this already?"

"I didn't write it. Anyway, the orphan is Oedipus Rex, who is raised with a new family. He then gets a physic,"

"The same physic or a different one?"

"I can't be expected to recall every detail, Draco, this is a very complicated play."

"Sorry, carry on."

"So that physic tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Disgusted, Oedipus leaves what he believes to be his biological father and mother and goes off and does whatever, because he doesn't know he was adopted. He ends up as a soldier and kills a king of somewhere and then he marries the widowed queen, but-"

"THAT'S HIS MOM AND DAD!"

"IT'S HIS MOM AND DAD!"

Draco's mouth was opened in shock. Leia realized how rusty she was on a lot of the details on Greek tragedies, but laughed anyway. It's not like he'd notice anyway.

"That sexy bastard..."

"Well he didn't know it was his mom." Leia replied confused.

"No I mean Theo. He told me it was some smutty romance novel that turned you on."

Leia laughed even harder to that.

"That's awesome." she said laughing so hard her stomach hurt.

"Bloody git."

"Why did you call him a sexy bastard before?"

"We have odd ways of speaking to one another... He calls me his gimp, but I don't know what that means."

Leia started laughing so hard she rolled off him.

_This is why it is vital that everyone watches Pulp Fiction._

Draco stood wearily and helped her up and they both found their clothing.

"So are we just moving from one couch to floor to another couch?" Leia asked while buttoning buttons.

"I guess. Why don't you go out first and I'll follow. I think Potter has been stalking me."

Leia nodded.

_He probably is._

Leia walked alone back to her common room, and went to the girls' dorm to find Pansy and friends wide awake, and giggling. Most of the time they were asleep by now.

"Oh, Leia, welcome back. Were you out with a special gentleman?" Pansy said teasingly.

"Yeah, Draco Malfoy fucked me on a couch." Leia said with a straight face. The giggling stopped. There was silence across the room.

"That's not funny, Leia." Pansy sneered with a frown.

"Well, it was a joke." Leia said sighing. "So, it's not like I'm going to apologize for trying to be funny."

Pansy didn't seem to have a response to that, because she just went on jabbering about whatever she was talking about before Leia walked in.

Leia changed into her nightclothes and waited for the girls to go to sleep.

They didn't. They kept gossiping for the whole fucking night.

Leia literally had no way to sneak out now with those girls watching her. So instead of a good night's sleep, Leia was faced with long restless hours of waiting until dawn.

She never did explain to Draco what a gimp is.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey, so this chapter isn't super necessary, but has some foreshadowing in it. (If that was a tweet, I'd end it with #literarydevices) So take that for what you will. Read, review, and tell your friends. I say that every time. Do you guys not have friends, because viewership isn't blowing me away right now. Whatever. This is a judgement free zone. I'm also writing this note at five in the morning so forgive me for whatever I have written.

Chapter 10

On the Road to Finding Out by Cat Stevens

"How do you really feel about Potter? Like, objectively." Leia said sitting on a couch in the Slytherin common room with her legs draped over Draco's lap. It was around 2:30 in the morning and neither showed signs of being tired.

"I hate him."

"Hate, like, hating the colour orange or like bee hatred."

This probably should have been a rather serious conversation, but the smiles on both of their faces made it hard to talk solemnly.

"What's the difference?"

"Well, I hate the colour orange, but it's not like I have a vendetta against it or anything. On the other hand bee hatred is quite different. When a bee stings a something, they lose their stinger and they die. They have to have noticed this by now, I mean, once you see all of your friends die you're bound to see a pattern. So they knowingly give up their lives to give humans a mild annoyance. That's true hatred. When you're willing to slit your own throat to bleed on someone's white shirt, then you've gone to the bee hatred level."

Leia had actually spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about different levels of hatred. Draco had an amused smile on his face while hearing all of this.

"But what if the bee thinks your deathly allergic to them and kills themselves in an attempt to kill you?"

Leia snorted.

"Whatever. Would you really kill yourself, end your life, on the off chance that someone else allergic to you? That's like slitting your throat hoping that the blood would end up in their mouth and make them choke or something. I don't think bees are that dumb."

Draco smiled and shook his head.

"I think you give bees to much credit."

"I think you haven't answered my question. Orange or bee level hatred, or somewhere in between?"

Draco paused for a minute.

"Are their other levels?"

"Sure. There's like smoldering day hatred, which is close to orange, because on a super-hot day no one is happy but, instead of doing nothing, you can move or stand in front of the freezer. That's hating someone when you're willing to do something about it, but only if it's convenient. Then there's what I call Hitler Hatred, where all of society tends to hate one person for a good reason. Most people, given the chance would have wished him dead, knowing what they know now, but it's only a few people who are still alive who actually knew the guy. So Hitler Hatred is to the point where you'd be willing to kill, or at least will to be dead, someone you've only heard about. It's hating someone without any person-to-person contact.

"And right before bee hatred is farting ass-hole kid hatred. That's the one kid who's an ass hole to everyone they meet, and on top of that fart all the time. It's the person you know who has no good qualities, like maybe he hit a baby or something, and killing them would be you're idea of a public service. It's when you'd feel good about killing someone you know personally. So, orange, hot day, Hitler, farting ass-hole kid, or bee hatred?"

"Farting ass-hole kid hatred." Draco said without a second thought.

"Whoa man, think it over, that's pretty high on the hatred level. Potter has some positive qualities. You may not like them, but it's not like he farts all the time on top of that."

"But I know him personally."

"Do you?" Leia said looking at him right in the eyes.

"I know him more than enough to get to farting ass-hole kid hatred."

"So killing would be a public service?"

Draco paused.

"To a part of the public..."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"Well I think Harry is at bee level hatred with you."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. But you have to see it from his eyes. Your parents work for the guy who killed his parents, you bully all of his friends, and you never show your positive qualities when he's around."

Draco shrugged. He changed the subject casually.

"Would you think ill of me if I killed someone?"

The way he said it sounded so casual, like he was asking about the weather, which had gotten cold over the last few hours.

"I'm not making any promises."

"So?"

Leia rolled her eyes, this question had gotten silly.

"Well, I guess it would matter who and how. Like, if you found some guy who cut in line at a restaurant and like ripped his heart out of his chest, then that'd be pretty bad ass and I'd totally still be into you. But if you like paid a guy to kill someone for you, then I'd never talk to again."

Draco laughed.

"You have no problem with me killing someone who cuts in line, but if I paid someone else to do my dirty work it'd be unacceptable?"

Leia scoffed.

"Well, yeah. That's like the lamest way to kill someone. Don't be such a piece of shit, just kill the person, geez."

"Wouldn't hiring an assassin be like taking advantage of your personal privilege?"

"Yeah and it'd be really lame. Try not to kill anyone though. It's kind of mean. You can't come back from that."

"Killing someone?"

"Being dead, I meant."

"That's true..." His smile faded and a small frown appeared.

_Why did he even bring up this subject?_

"How's stuff with the tattoo club going?" Leia had found many ways around saying the words 'Death Eaters'.

"Uneventful for the moment. I'm guessing the Pride of Griffyndor Club won't be letting you sit in on their meetings anymore?"

Leia sighed.

"Yeah, I mean, I feel like I got rejected by the rejects. Isn't that what's supposed to happen to school shooters like the week before they buy their trench coats and shotgun bullets?"

"I'm not familiar with this muggle phenomenon. Kids bring in muggle weaponry to school and it doesn't end well, I'm guessing."

"Yeah, it's hard to find a silver lining to those stories. Sometimes a kid will kill the people who bullied them or something. Other times they'll kill a teacher or administrator. It seems to happen most in quiet suburbia."

"Are you going to Slughorn's Ball?" Draco asked as casually as he did the 'would you think ill of me if...' question.

"Well I'm not in Slughorn's clique anymore. I went to one God-awful dinner thing and then told him I wasn't interested. He didn't seem to take it personally. I think it was obvious I was not having a great time."

"So you're not going."

"Hopefully not. I'd hate to get all fancied up and be dragged to something with bad music and gross food without you to complain about it with."

"How sweet of you."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"I'm guessing you won't be attending."

"No, never. I don't care for Slughorn. How dare he not ask me to be in his club, but Blaise is in! Ha." He said a little bitterly.

Leia laughed.

"Are you jealous?"

"Not really, more slightly annoyed. I just don't think it's fair to choose favorites."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"If you were a teacher you'd do the exact same thing."

"But my taste in students would be impeccable."

"Whatever, I bet you're really mad that Potter is Slughorn's golden boy."

"Hmm, maybe." Draco said before pausing. "Well, I do have something Harry Potter doesn't."

"Better fashion sense?"

"Not what I was thinking of, but God I think he only owns that one blue shirt."

"I know! And his parents left him pretty well off, he could do better if he really wanted to."

"The nerve... But I was thinking that I have the person I adore sitting in my lap right now, and he's probably wanking off to some image of one of the Weaslys."

"He has surprisingly bad luck with women. You'd think 'I'm the chosen one' is all the pick-up line you'd need."

Draco laughed a little.

"Did you even notice that I just said that I adore you?"

Leia got quiet.

"Maybe you shouldn't say that." She whispered. "Maybe it's best if we don't voice our feelings."

"Why?"

"Won't I just hurt us more in the end?" Leia asked sadly.

Draco nodded with a hurt expression on his face.

Leia swore she heard Draco sniffle as they were both falling asleep, but that could have been anything.


	11. Chapter 11

Here you go. Enjoy. Review, etc. Have a good day.

* * *

Chapter 11

Hey by the Pixies

"What?" Leia asked Harry Potter again, not sure she fully comprehended the question he had asked her twice now.

"Would you go to Slughorn's Christmas party with me? As a friend."

Leia was pretty flabbergasted. She was sitting alone in the library, working on DADA homework when Harry sat across the table from her and spoke to her for the first time in weeks.

"I don't think you know what all of those words mean." She said still confused.

"Is that a no?"

"No, it's not a no….but why?" She asked, not meaning to be rude.

"It might be fun." Harry said unconvincingly.

"No, I mean why are you asking me? I'm sure there are plenty of other girls just chomping at the bits for you to even talk to them."

Harry smiled a little.

"Well Slughorn is going to use this party as an excuse to show me off and have me mingle with strangers I don't want to meet. I figured your dry wit and sarcasm would make you the anti-mingle-er."

"So you want me to be a bad date on propose so that Slughorn won't parade you around?" Leia said pushing her eyebrows together.

_He really knows how to 'woo' a girl._

"Exactly."

Leia thought it over in her head.

_This is probably his test to see if I'm dating Draco, because he knows Draco would be furious. If I do this it would be as proof enough for Harry to believe I'm not seeing Draco..._

"Sure, whatever. I'm going to have to wear stuff, though aren't I?"

"Don't you always wear stuff?"

"Yeah but like stuff-stuff. Like a nice dress or something."

"That seems to be the case."

"Alright, when is it?"

"The 20th at eight."

_Two weeks away..._

"You should get excited then." Leia said without much enthusiasm.

"Well I can see you're overflowing with anticipation right now, so I'm going to leave you to your homework so you can cool down from that emotional thrill ride of talking to me." Harry said standing with a smirk on his face. Leia laughed, nodded and lazily waved as he left.

_Draco is going to go ape shit._

"You're what?" Draco grunted through his teeth. The one hand that wasn't lying on Leia's outstretched leg was in a tight ball of intense anger. He refused to look at Leia with his eyes straight ahead. They were sitting in the Slytherin common room at approximately 2 in the morning.

"Take it down a notch buddy, let me explain. If I go with you-know-who, he'll jump to conclusions. It'll make Harry-Logic that if I go with him to a party then that means I couldn't possibly be seeing anyone. That'd mean there is no possible way that I could be dating you. I know how his brain works, sort of. If it makes you feel any better I don't plan on enjoying myself while I'm there."

Draco's chest rose and fell with the flare of his nostrils.

"You're not going to let him dance with you or anything, right?" Draco said still equally furious.

"What? Ew, no. I'm only there to make rude comments so Slughorn's contemporaries leave Harry alone. People aren't really going to be dancing at this thing, right?"

"If he so much as touches your waist..."

"You'll what? Pop out of your hiding place and attack him? You should paint yourself into the wall and then just leap on Harry when he passes by. That'd be cool." Leia said trying to ease the mood.

"You should dress sloppily. He doesn't deserve a well-dressed date."

Leia sighed and rolled her eyes.

"What are you, five years old? Get over it. I'll have to stand next to some ass hole other than you for a few hours, so what? It's not like he actually _likes_ me or I actually _like_ him. You should try being a fucking adult for once in your life."

Draco's eyes were still focused on something right ahead of him. That last comment hurt. She could almost see his thoughts, something like he 'was a fucking death eater and children do not just become fucking death eaters and have the dark mark'. She also wondered if other death eaters had called him a childish and not ready for responsibility. His fist seemed to grow tighter.

"But it's not just another ass hole. You're going with bloody Harry Potter."

Leia couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

"So what do you want me to do? Not go and then make Harry more paranoid and freaked out? He'd go ballistic if he ever even thought we were together much less than if he actually found out about us. Doing this will make him not pursue this anymore."

"You're going as a _date_ to a _party_ with the person who put my father in _Askaban_. Sorry if I'm a little upset."

"Oh really? Harry Potter put your father in prison? Are you kidding me? It's not like your father was wrongly convicted, Draco! He put himself in prison, so don't go and make Harry Potter a fucking 'scape goat." Leia stood up from her place on the couch. "If you're gonna be like this I'll sleep by myself."

As she stood Draco held on to her wrist gently. She looked back at him and saw the remorse in his eyes.

"Please don't leave." He said in a voice just above a whisper. Leia sat back down in her former position, of sitting horizontally on the couch with her legs outstretched over Draco's. Draco shifted his weight so he was stretched out horizontally along the couch, his body molding to Leia's. He wrapped his hand around her waist and put his head into her hair.

"I just don't want to share you with anyone." he said near her ear.

Leia frowned.

"It makes me feel like your sex slave when you say that. I know you didn't mean it that way, but you should know that _you_ would definitely be the sex slave in this relationship and not the other way around."

Draco laughed.

_Did I really just relax the mood by bringing up the subject of human trafficking?_

_We are bad people._

"I would be an excellent sex slave."

"Is that something you really want to be proud of?"

"Well if the world collapsed and somehow I was forced into sexual slavery, I would be used for like the divorcees or widows of billionaires."

_This is so politically incorrect and offensive._

"You seem to assume that you'd only be fucking women, and I wouldn't count on that."

He paused

"Okay never mind. I don't want to be a sex slave anymore."

"Did you ever want to be a sex slave? Because that is very different than saying you'd be good at it."

"Well really I just wanted to prove my abilities."

Leia laughed with Draco at that last comment. There was silence for a moment before Draco spoke again.

"What was your life like before you came to Hogwarts?"

_God, he's random in the wee hours of the morning._

"Umm, less aggravating? I don't know, prior to Hogwarts I was never in a political rebellion, so that was different..."

"Where did you get your wand? Here you only have a very limited number of wand shops to choose from, do they have them in the states?"

"Cleveland, Ohio. Everyone I know in the states that practices magic got their wand from there."

"Hmmmm. What was the school like that you went to?"

_What is he, my shrink?_

"It was much smaller than this. It was called St. Charles Academy. It was quite expensive to go there and there were only about 40 kids per class. It was meant to look like a muggle school, so all of the credits you got from magic classes showed up as an extracurricular on a transcript. There was more of a sense of community there..."

"And your friends?"

Leia chuckled.

"I hung out with a group of weirdos who listened to funk and wore vintage clothing. We smoked and cursed all the time, well, other than my brother who was quite dapper. I was the only one who actually made good grades, the rest of us kind of slacked off. My brother was probably the most charming of the group. He was able to smile and get us out of detention. Then there was Marcy Haggard, whose parents were like on the board of directors at the school so it was her mission to make her parents look bad. Her excuse for not doing her homework was 'my parents never taught me better.' She got tattoos at a young age and would open beer bottles with her mouth. Tom Dwire was there too. He was probably the most convincing actor I've ever met. He played Hamlet once in a school play and it was to this day some of the best acting I've ever seen. He had a really extensive Bob Dylan music collection and would personally harm anyone who talked bad of Dylan. He also once punched a kid that said he didn't like the Beatles. Tom and my brother were really close. Then Eugene Gray is probably to this day one of the greatest people I've ever met."

Leia paused remembering her friend as Draco took in all of this new information.

"Eugene wore a well-tailored tweed three piece suit every single day of the year, no matter the occasion or weather patterns. He had like fifty of them I think. Anyway, he had a knack for writing cow poetry." At this Draco propped himself up on one elbow to look at her in the eyes.

"Cow poetry?"

"Which is exactly what it sounds like- long epic poems about the falling in and out of love between two cows. He also had a graffiti stencil of a hot dog with an eye patch and a gun that he would spray paint around town. He also listened to a lot of Bach along with the Sex Pistols. So yeah, one of the greatest people I've ever met: Eugene Gray."

Draco seemed actually impressed.

"He seems extraordinary. I'd love to meet him."

"I haven't talked to him, or any of them other than Luke, in ages. I think they were all pretty angry when we left."

"Why would they be angry?"

Leia was silent for a moment.

"It was really awful timing, because we left a few days after Tom's mother died in a car accident. Marcy and Eugene said we were abandoning them and that we should have tried harder to stay, at least for the funeral. But we couldn't, for some reason, my mom decided that we had to go that instant. It was really bad because even before we were leaving we had a bit of a falling out period with them. We just didn't feel like we had as much in common with them as we thought. And Marcy in particular was really upset about my interest in fashion, she said it made me shallow and that I had lured Luke into it or some shit. Us leaving was the straw that broke the camel's back. I think my brother still talks to Tom though... Tom was like family for Luke and I and it hurt to leave him in that much pain. I'm sure my brother regrets it as much as I do."

Draco had a sad look on his face.

"Theo's mum died when he was very young."

Leia gasped in surprise. He never mentioned either of his parents, much less that he was only raised by one of them.

"I don't even know how she died or when exactly, but I know that Theo can see Thestrals. He was mostly raised by his father who's been on the dark lord's side since the mid-1950s. He's a lot stronger of a person than he lets on."

Leia took a moment to let that set in.

_Theo was raised by a death eater. Holy shit._

"I had no idea." Leia said honestly.

"I think only Blaise, Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, and the Greengrasses know. It wasn't made public. I think there was quiet a large age difference between Theo's parents, but I know Mr. Nott is rather old now, I think he's almost 70 now."

"I literally know nothing about his family."

"His father was also imprisoned with mine. Theo lives with some extended family now. I've offered for him to stay at the manor, but he kindly refuses. I doubt he has interest in becoming a war criminal like his father..."

Leia's eyes widened as she sat up straight.

"And Crabbe's father is there as well." he continued, "They're just not remembered as the kid who's dad is in Askaban."

Leia's mind was reeling. It seemed like just minutes ago he was joking about sex trafficking and now she fully understands why his group of people are friends.

_It's not just bigotry; it's a mutual understanding of what the other is going through. It's not like he has a lot of choices with people who can relate to his situation. So he's stuck with whoever has their dad in jail._

Leia sighed. She was at a loss for words.

"I'm happy you're not in jail." Leia said because it was the first thing that popped into her head.

"Leia, I'm overjoyed to hear you say that... And it brings me no greater pleasure to know that you are not wasting away in an Askaban cell surrounded by dementors who suck your soul away for fun."

He said this lightly, but she could feel the pain behind it. 'I'm glad you're not there Leia, because that's what my dad is going through right now.' is what he meant to say.

Draco held her face and pulled it toward her own and slowly kissed her. Their exhaustion made their lips clumsy. At some point they scrambled to be laying one on top of the other. Once they released their lips, they both fell asleep instantly. Their breaths and small snores went unnoticed by the world around them.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey, sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been super busy! Thanks for the reviews. Enjoy.

Chapter 12

Soundtrack: I'm Shaking, Jack White

Leia frowned.

She was not looking forward to this.

She wore an a-line collared Kenzo brocade dress. It was fantastic, metallic gold with bright green dots lined with purple thread that all shined brightly. She held a Kotur croc-embossed metal box clutch tightly. The shoes were fabulous Miu Miu glitter-soled suede peep-toe pumps in a rich Merlot color.

As amazing of an outfit that it was, it was not at all what she had asked for.

Her brother, being the terrible person he is, instead of getting her 'something nice but not crazy expensive, J-Crew is the priciest you should go' outfit like she asked for, sent her a ridiculous outfit costing her parents thousands of dollars all over a party that she didn't want to attend. Leia was not pleased.

When the clothes came, Luke left his sister a note saying, 'I took the whole J-Crew thing as sarcasm and went all out. Enjoy your night because the clothes are non-refundable.'

_That piece of shit._

She really did not want this night to be that big of a deal, but she didn't really have a choice at this point. She put many curses on the items, hoping that it would ensure they would not get stolen or damaged, but she was still nervous.

Mostly about Draco.

He had gotten angrier and angrier as the days drew closer to Slughorn's ball, and she was sure this outfit would not make him feel any better. She had even had sex with him right in the middle of the Slytherin common room last night, for some reason that she couldn't really remember. Probably just to shut him up. She still seriously regretted that. She knew anyone could waltz in and find them snuggling would be one thing, but it would be another so see them fucking on a Slytherin couch.

She wore the panther necklace hoping that Draco would notice, and see it as a sign of loyalty.

Harry had told Leia to meet him in the Great Hall a little after the party had already started. 'The later we are, the less time we're there.' was his logic. And Leia couldn't argue with that. Luckily, it seemed like no one was in the Slythern common room when she made her way to meet Harry. She was scared she's run into Draco, but she made it there without a hitch.

When she found Harry, he was the only one waiting just outside the Great Hall. He looked at her and smiled.

"You look good." He said, surprising her.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, your clothes look really expensive so people with think you're a rich snob and be less likely to talk to either of us."

_And there is the famous Potter charm!_

"Let's get this over with."

"My thoughts exactly."

They walked to Slughorn's office in silence. The party was in full swing, and was crowded. It looked like a Christmas-themed circus tent and many of Slughorn's former Slug Club members were the clowns. Leia smelled rich tobacco. Slughorn greeted both Leia and Harry, but mostly Harry, heartily. He then beckoned Harry over to meet some author and Harry dragged Leia over there by the arm desperately. He really didn't want to go into this alone.

It seemed that Slughorn wanted to set up Harry with a book deal, because a former Slug Club member of his wanted to write Harry's biography.

"You could call it, 'The Awkward Mis-Adventures of Some Kid Who Keeps on Accidentally Saving the World.'" Leia said creating an awkward silence.

"I'd read it." Harry said while having trouble hiding his smirk. "If it weren't about me, I mean."

"Yeah, I'd hate to read a book about you. How dreadfully boring."

Leia said, craving to breathe the some of the smoke she smelled.

At that moment the two adults dissolved from the two teenager's attention because Harry found Hermione.

She had an unhappy expression on her face.

"I just escaped McClaggin from the missile-toe." she said grimly.

"Ew." Leia said absent- mindedly, forgetting that she hadn't spoken to Hermione since the night in the library.

"We should move- I see him coming."

"At least he's tall enough that he can't really sneak up on you." Harry said walking with Hermione over to get mead.

"Sneak attacks do not work well for large people of any kind." Leia said like she was giving a sad statistic about miscarriages. Harry snorted and Hermione almost laughed but was too distracted by constantly ducking her head out of view.

Professor Triloni was there, looking buzzed and speaking about some fire or something when Hermione bolted spontaneously from the conversation. McLaggin replaced her presence.

"Wasn't Granger just here?"

"No, I thought she was with you." Harry said like a parent who had just lost their child.

"I could have sworn I saw her."

"I don't even know anyone named Granger." Leia said, deciding she was bored enough to play with McClaggin's head.

"Come to think of it, I don't recall a 'Granger' either." Harry added.

"Is that the given name or sir name? Or is it one name?" Leia asked, feeling like a detective.

"Hermione Granger. Stop playing stupid, you're both good friends with her. Where did she go?" McClaggin was losing patience.

"Herman E. Granger sounds like a fake name to me. I'm pretty sure that's a made up person." Leia said in the same voice as 'I'm sorry for you loss' would sound.

"Hermione Granger. Where is she?" He asked again.

"Herm Ione Granger... are you sure that's a woman?" Harry asked, hiding his smile well.

"Maybe a non-binary person, perhaps?" Leia snuck in.

"Shove off." McClaggin said angrily before storming off. Leia and Harry burst into laughter the moment he was out of earshot.

"That altercation would have been worth documenting in a book." Harry said matter-of-factly while laughing.

Interrupting the laughter was Slughorn, but this time he was standing next to Severus Snape the ultimate kill-joy.

"Ah, Harry, so this is where you've run off to with your date!" Slughorn said with too much enthusiasm in his voice. It's worth noting that Leia and Harry really hadn't run off to anywhere, they were just next to where the mead was. For some reason Slughorn's comment made it sound like they were behind a woodshed or something.

"Miss Allen, you came with Mr. Potter?" Snape asked Leia with a judgmental eyebrow raised.

"Well with all of the gentlemen who asked me to this party, I felt like there was really no better option than the chosen one." Leia replied smartly.

"Who else asked you?" Harry said not getting her sarcasm.

"Dumbledore." She replied dead-pan. He nodded and smiled a little, getting the joke.

"Well, Severus, I've been just gushing over Harry's supreme talents in potions! I'm sure he must have been your best student!" Slughorn butted in, not enjoying the lack of attention he was getting.

"Potter? In the five years I taught him he never showed a glimmer of brilliance in potion making. If anything his work was just reaching average. Are you sure he isn't cheating of one of his friends? Miss Granger or even Miss Allen, perhaps?"

Leia had to cover her face slightly to hide her laugh. Snape's bluntness never ceased to make her chuckle.

"There have been many assignments where Mr. Potter has exceeded both Miss Granger and Miss Allen. While they are both talented witches, do not misunderstand; Harry has been ahead of all the other students in his class. He shows skills of making an excellent Auror."

Snape sneered at the word 'Auror.'

Harry looked at his date nervously, mentally pleading with her to kill the conversation. So, Leia popped in.

"You know, Severus," she said purposely putting this comment off to a bad start by using his first name, "I share the same hesitance that you do about Harry's future as an Auror. See I fear he might have already peaked."

"Peaked?" Harry repeated, curious to where this was going.

"Yeah, he's climbed that metaphorical mountain, by literally killing giant snakes, defeating scary adults, winning the tri-wizard cup, and breaking into the department of mysteries. That's a lot for one lifetime. I'm sure he's at the top now and it's really all downhill from here. Who knows, but I'd guess in five years Harry Potter will be nothing but a bum on the street."

"I can see that." Harry said enjoying the looks on their teacher's faces, "It's hard to follow up from being the best potions student in your sixth year NEWTs level class. And then taking Leia Allen to Slughorn's famous Christmas Party, you can't beat that."

To bring the joke home, he put his arm around Leia's waist. Note: this was the first time he had touched her all night. Leia leaned into his touch on impulse.

"Exactly my point-" Leia started before she heard the angry sounds of an all too familiar voice cursing. The rest of the party froze as the angry teenage boy's harsh tone echoed a little through the room.

_Shit shit shit shit shit shit._

"I found this trying to gate crash the party." Flitch said like he had just caught a large fish.

"Get off of me you filthy squib!" Draco said loudly before shoving Flitch's grasp off of him.

Leia felt a pang in her stomach but chose to ignore it. She and Draco made eye contact for half a second, before Draco's eyes went to Harry's hand that still hadn't moved from Leia's waist.

"Well, if you really want to be included in the party, I give you permission to stay, Mr. Malfoy." Slughorn said graciously.

"Actually, I'd like to have a word with Mr. Malfoy myself..." Snape said while grabbing onto Draco's collar. Slughorn nodded and Snape took Draco away. Leia felt light-headed.

Harry dropped his hand and spoke away from her.

"I'm going to the loo."

She knew what he really meant was, 'I'm going to spy on Snape and Malfoy now, enjoy the rest of the party on your own! Deuces!' Leia nodded, not that he had noticed because he was too busy totally abounding her.

_Mother-Fucker._

Leia felt like it was almost her cue to leave and walk back to the Slytherin common room, but instead she followed the smell of an old pipe. She found an old wizard standing in the corner alone with a long pipe and multi-colored smoke circling above him. He wordlessly knew what Leia had come her for and offered her his pipe.

She moved next to him, standing against the wall and took a deep breath of the toxic chemicals that were now forever lined in her lungs. After a long moment she handed the pipe back to the man.

"I like the hits of cinnamon. It's light but still as rich as something heavier. It's good." She said to the man.

"It's the hints of Latakia." He said in a smooth voice.

"Tastes English."

The man took a puff before replying and passing it back to Leia.

"That's what I thought, but it is Virginian."

"Huh." Leia said before inhaling again.

"You wouldn't happen to be Harry Potter's American Slytherin date, would you?" He asked smiling slightly.

"You caught me."

"You and he have been the talk of the evening."

"Well now I just feel famous."

"You wouldn't happen to be his girlfriend, would you?"

This man was a lot more gossipy than she had expected.

"Ah, no. Harry and I are just friends. He's not the most charming man you'd expect him to be."

"Really?"

"Really." She said catching the man of the hour out of her peripheral vision. "But if anyone asks you, we're not dating, but we totally shagged."

The man laughed dryly, and nodded as she left.

"Who was that?" Harry asked, seeing her leave some old man.

"I donno, I told him we shagged though. How was stalking Draco?" Leia said causally.

Harry opened his mouth, blushing slightly before being interrupted by McLaggin.

"She left already." He said frustrated.

"Who?" Harry and Leia said together.

"Hermione Granger." McClaggin said through his teeth.

"The imaginary person?" Leia asked really to piss him off even more.

"Herman E. or Herm Ione Granger left ages ago, from what I heard." Harry said just before McClaggin walked off with a chip on his shoulder.

"I wonder what his problem is..." Leia said before chuckling a little.

"I'm ready to leave now." Harry said flatly.

"Yeah, sure." Leia was not quite prepared to see Draco again, but she might as well get it over with.

Harry offered to walk her back to her common room, but Leia turned him down. She didn't want this to feel like a date, or have Draco catch them together again.

She walked along the corridor towards the donjons slowly. She let her heels click loudly against the stone and echo through the hall. She was alone; everyone else was at the party or in a common room. She sighed. It has been a while since she had gotten alone time. She was either in a classroom, with Theo and Astoria, or with Draco. She took her time to enjoy her solitude.

She was almost there when she felt a hot hand grab her shoulder roughly from behind. She yelped when the hand pushed her against a stone wall. She hadn't even heard footsteps. The arms pinned her against the wall. She then felt hot breath against her ear.

A familiar voice growled in her ear.

"I know about you and Draco."


	13. Chapter 13

Hey, thanks for the reviews and slight increase in story traffic. It's helping my self esteem. This chapter isn't really a feel-good one, FYI. Coming up next will be more humor. Thanks! Read and review kiddos.

Chapter 13

House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls by The Weeknd (You guys should probably buy his whole album Trilogy, it's $9.99 on iTunes and it comes with like 30 amazing songs and your ears will thank you forever)

Leia's breath hitched as she froze. A wooden point was held against her back that she recognized as a wand. She could feel her heart beating in her ear as the voice spoke again:

"You've been fucking Draco, haven't you?"

Blaise Zambini was a lot more terrifying than she had given him credit for. He grabbed one of her arms and pulled it behind her back, twisting it awkwardly.

Leia cried out.

"Scream as loud as you want. No one can hear you. Not like I've heard you and Draco together."

Leia's knees went out and she tried to go limp, but it was proven more difficult with Blaise twisting her arm.

"I woke up last night and noticed Draco was gone, again. I went to go investigate when right in my own common room I found you on top of him. You two were so far gone you didn't even notice you had an audience."

_I totally knew that was a bad idea! What did I say? I said 'this is stupid and someone is going to catch us'. Draco Malfoy, I told you so. I WAS SO RIGHT. Remember to gloat about that later._

"So you're going to let me fuck you, like the little slut you are... Or else I'll tell."

"Blaise, please, stop. Get off me. _Now_."

"Shut up you fucking whore. You know you want this."

To add emphasis to his words, he ground his hardness into her ass. She squirmed against him. Her eyes widened painfully in fear as panic set in.

"Blaise, you little shit, get off of me!"

"Not unless you want everyone to know your dirty little secret."

Leia had dropped her bag a few moments ago, and it held her wand. But she could disarm him. She was better than him. She could do this.

"Expelliarmis!" she yelled with wandless magic as she kicked herself from the wall. Blaise jumped back and she summoned her bag and fished out her wand before he could think of anything else to do. He stood defenseless against a pissed off witch with a wand.

"Blaise Zambini. You little fucking-baby-penis-slut-monster-toilet-fart-face." Her insults lost their intelligence with anger, as usual. "You know what? You're not going to say a fucking word, ask me why."

Blaise shook his head, now looking scared.

"Ask me, Sherlock!" She yelled.

"W-why?"

She might have been secretly buying herself time to think of something to threaten him with, but it seemed intimidating.

"Because this: Obliviate."

_He totally deserved it because I bet he doesn't even know who Sherlock Homes is._

She erased his memory of last night and of just now. She sighed after a moment, when his face went to its usual sourness at the sight of her. Without a word, he turned on his heel and went in the direction of the Slytherin common room.

He recovered well, but didn't remember that he had been disarmed so his wand lay in the corner of a hallway. Leia left it there.

_The fucker deserves to have his wand missing for a few hours..._

She walked over to the Slytherin common room as many of her peers herded back to their respective dorms. When she arrived at her bed she found a note on her bedside table.

"_Prefects Bathroom. Now. Evergreen._"

It was Draco's handwriting. She sighed. She was tired. Obliviating memory correctly is very difficult and can be physically draining. A big part of her didn't want to walk all the way to the prefect's bathroom. And his way of addressing situations head on was so un-Leia. Couldn't they just put this off until their emotions came to a boiling point? That sounded more like Leia.

She found herself whispering 'Evergreen' to get into the prefect's bathroom. She could never get used to that: talking to doors to get into places. It made her feel like she was entering some weird fetish nightclub or something. Instead she was just entering a very nice communal bathroom with a teenage boy staring at the moving mermaids in the stain glass.

He stood there in his suit looking tired. He gazed upon the mermaids like they were an old _Law and_ _Order_ episode that he'd already seen a few times. It would be something you put on to distract yourself from your actual problems, what TV is meant to do. Wizards should probably have TV for this reason.

"Hi." Leia said in an unusually high voice. She felt very uncomfortable and a little scared. She wasn't sure if he would be mad about the whole Harry Touched Her Waist incident or if she should be mad over the Zambini Caught Us Together incident. Either way, she felt like her claim was more legitimate, like in every conversation she's ever had.

"I'm sorry." Draco said to Leia's surprise. "I'm so sorry about the squib comment. I really just hate Flitch and wanted him to get off of me so I said the first thing I could think of to insult him. I had almost forgotten I had an audience of people I was insulting, and on top of that, you. I'm just so sorry."

_Flitch__ does have pretty awful hygiene, so your comment was accurate._

Leia was totally surprised. She thought he's be pissed about the whole hand-waist thing. Instead he was sorry? His comment didn't even insult her that much. The fact that his tie was wonky right now was slightly more insulting.

"Draco, I don't really care about that comment. Harry Potter had his arm around me, you saw it while you were trying to gate crash the party- a story I don't believe by the way- and you aren't mad about that? That doesn't make sense to me. Also, Blaise Zambini saw us together last night. I had to erase his memory just now. I think we have bigger issues to deal with than you making a squib comment."

Draco looked at her for a moment without anger in his eyes. He stated at her intently. After a second his mood changed drastically into intense fury.

"Zambini... I'LL KILL HIM." He said yelling as he started charging towards the door.

Leia grabbed tightly at his arm to stop him.

"WHAT THE FUCK." She yelled back. He seemed much angrier than he should be. Blaise's memory was erased. Problem solved.

_I got shit done, Draco._

"HE TOUCHED YOU!" Draco bellowed as Leia put herself in front of the door to stop him.

"I NEVER SAID THAT!"

Leia was irate.

_How did he get to that, unlimitedly correct, but unpredictable conclusion?_

Draco breathed deeply to stop himself from yelling again.

"Didn't he?"

"Where the fuck would you get that idea from?"

"Well?"

"Draco, what fucking evidence drew you to that conclusion? Please, enlighten me. I'm dying to know the leaps you had to take to get to that point. I said he saw us together and that I erased his memory. How did you take that as, your words, he 'touched' me?"

Draco ground his teeth together.

"Tell me now. Did he grab you or not?"

"'Did he grab me?' Where the fuck did that come from?"

"Answer me."

"I think my question may be a bit more pressing considering Blaise Zambini doesn't have any fucking memory or what he may or may not have done. I solved the problem. Draco, why would you think that? Have you been following me? Stalking me to make sure I'm not fucking someone else? 'Cuz that seemed totally like something you would do."

"He told me he would."

Leia's face changed into one of fear and shock. Draco's fury turned to shame.

"He said he knew and he'd fuck you whether you like it or not or he'd tell the whole school. I said I'd kill him. And I meant it." Draco's eyes were now dilated in hatred and rage. "I thought he was bluffing. And now _I'm going to kill him._"

Leia slapped him on the face, part in anger and part to calm him down, but more in anger.

"DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?" She yelled before talking just above an angry whisper. "He came up behind me in the hallway while I was walking back from the party. I hadn't even heard any footsteps, and then I felt a hand on my wrists and someone push me against a wall. One hand he contorted my arm and with the other he pushed his wand into my back. He whispered in my ear that he saw me with you last night and how I was going to let him fuck me so he'd be quiet. After a moment or two of that I pushed out against the wall and disarmed him and then quickly erased his memory."

Draco stared at her intently, but never interrupted her. She felt his passion rise as her own anger did.

"So with that fun story in mind, explain to me how you hear a guy threaten to rape me and do nothing about it on the off chance that he's bluffing."

Leia could feel his story being a lie. Draco is far too protective to let those words pass through Blaise's lips.

"WHY DO YOU THINK I WAS THERE?"

Leia looked at him with confusion through his yelling before he spoke normally.

"I didn't break into the party for fun, Leia. I was following Blaise and then Snape called me over and we had a pow-wow that caused me to lose the bastard, so I wasn't there to protect you. And that's why I have to kill him." He started crying towards the end of his explanation, something that melted away Leia's anger pretty much instantly.

That story was a lie too, Leia knew it. Following a potential rapist who's targeting his girlfriend would be way too passive-aggressive for Draco's taste. Draco would have gone after Blaise personally. She wasn't totally sure Blaise even went to the party in the first place. That time line did not add up either. If he was with Snape, where did he get the time to leave a note on Leia's bedside?

She kissed him gently and wrapped her arms around him.

"Our relationship is pretty fucked." She whispered into his ear after a moment. She didn't bother to question him on his answers. She had a feeling she didn't want to know the truth.

"You just slapped me on the face to keep me from killing a person."

Draco was only half-crying now.

"You resorted to stalking someone to make sure they don't rape me."

"This can't end well. You know that, don't you?"

"It didn't start well, so why would it end well?"

He kissed her again. Leia felt tears seep out of her own eyes as she started angrily taking off her clothes.

"I need a shower." She said violently. She needed to get Blaise Zabmbini's smell off of her. Draco started taking off his tie. Leia hadn't thought about this being a two-person shower, but she went with it. She figured some consensual physical contact would be nice after whatever the fuck happened tonight.

Leia let her clothes land on the floor, carelessly, as she got her feet out of her shoes. She was wearing plain white Calvin Kline panties that she left on for no particular reason. Leia walked into the shower stall and turned the water on full blast at full heat. The water burned her skin leaving a pink tone to it. Draco's arms wrapped around her shoulders and his lips kissed on her neck. She leaned back into him while taking deep shaky breaths.

"I lo-" Draco whispered before cutting himself off. He probably remembered that the "L-word" was off limits.

"I'm really not in the mood tonight, Draco." Leia said whispering while some more tears poured out quietly.

"I completely understand. I'd never make you do something you didn't want."

"I know. Thank you."

The washed themselves silently after that. They left the bathroom in silence too. It wasn't uncomfortable, just a little sad.

That night they fell asleep in each other's arms on the couch in the Slytherin common room, but this time with a disillusionment charm. Leia knew he was lying to her about the things that happened tonight, but she couldn't sleep without Draco there anymore. She had a feeling she wouldn't get any sleep over Christmas break.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey, it's the Christmas chapter! It's a lot lighter, so be happy about that. The bad news is that these next two weeks are finals for me so it could be harder to update! But I'm still alive I promise. Read and Review. Love you guys.

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Chapter 14

She's Not There by The Zombies

Leia knocked on the lightly door of Harry and Ron's train compartment before opening it. She was one of the last students to board the Hogwarts Express for the ride home for winter holiday.

"So Theo and Astoria are sitting with Parkinson and Zambini and I can't pretend to be nice to them for a whole train ride."

She figured Harry had dragged her to this dance, and the least he could do is let her sit with them.

"Come in." Ron said waving her in, as Harry dawned the same warm expression as his friend. Leia was slightly surprised about how welcoming they were.

"We were just talking about what I heard Snape talking about with Malfoy during Slughorn's thing." Harry clarified.

"Oh."

Now their welcome made more sense.

"So they were arguing in a hallway, and Malfoy kept on saying that he was 'chosen for this' and how 'above all others he picked me.' Snape was offering to help him in whatever, and then said that he had made an unbreakable vow to protect Malfoy."

"Are you sure he said unbreakable vow?" Ron reiterated.

"Yes."

"The thing about an unbreakable vow is that you can't break it."

Leia rolled her eyes at Ron's obviousness.

"Yeah, if he's telling the truth he's made a huge commitment to Malfoy-" Leia was cut off by Lavender Brown breathing at the compartment door's window.

"Oh, here she is." Ron said in an almost embarrassed voice.

Lavender Brown, a prime specimen of Homo sapiens that she is, breathed on the glass to create mist. In the mist, she drew a heart with her finger with 'L + R' written inside. She then added an arrow and some accent lines and breathed over it again to reiterate her point. Leia couldn't hide the disgust on her face that only Harry and Ron saw. As Lavender Brown walked away, Hermione walked up and almost entered the compartment, until saw the heart staring back up at her; she shook her head and walked on.

"Ew." Leia said unable to wipe the disgust from her face.

"She's not that bad… I mean, all she wants to do is snog. Seriously! My lips are chapped, see?" Ron replied with some enthusiasm, and leaned in to show the other two passengers in the compartment.

"I'll take your word for it!" Harry said pushing him back a little.

"I feel like having someone to snog is not worth being around _that_ for any period of time." Leia said, now regaining some composure, and pointing to the now dripping heart.

"Anyway, what happens if you break an unbreakable vow?" Harry asked, wanting to get back on track.

"You die." Ron and Leia said together.

Luckily the conversation became lighter after that, mostly Harry and Ron talking about Quiddich while Leia flipped through a magazine Luke had sent her earlier. Once the train had stopped, Leia stepped out of the Hogwarts express with a smile on her face. She was excited for Christmas holiday, and it officially begun when she made her way down the steps of the train. She searched for her brother only to feel a nudge from behind her. It was from a large box. The top and bottom were wrapped individually in bright magenta. The box was being held by her brother who had a big goofy grin on his face.

"Happy-late-birthday-early-Christmas-open-it-now." Her brother said in one breath.

"Right here?"

"Now." He demanded.

Leia was skeptical, but lifted the top off the box to find a fluff of black fur. Leia's heart melted. She almost cried at how tender a moment this was.

"It's a kitty." Leia said as she took the young kitten in her arms. It seemed tired and naturally molded into her. Leia could feel her mouth wide open in this weird grin of surprise. Her brother hugged her with a knowing smile. Leia was too overwhelmed by the moment to say goodbye to her friends. Luke took her trunk out with her to meet her parents.

Her parents shared the same grin that Luke had on his face and they hugged her and led her into the car.

On the way to their flat was when the Allens really started talking.

"We got one in black because we figure if she sheds then no one would notice because all of your clothes are black." Luke explained.

"So it's a she." Leia clarified.

"Yes. She'a a bombay." Her father answered.

"Oh, fancy." Leia said in a silly voice.

"And there is another surprise at home... Well not it's not for you, because it's mine, but you'll be surprised." Luke said, still smiling.

"What are you going to name her?" Leia's mother asked which was a question Leia hadn't thought about.

"I donno, maybe, Puppy."

Luke laughed.

"That'll get confusing..." Luke muttered.

"Hmmm. Maybe, like Stella or Miuccia, or Luella..."

"You're just naming off female designers."

_Stella McCartney. Miuccia Prada. Luella Bartly._

"Whatever... I don't know. I think Puppy is the best suggestion so far."

"It'll hard to top that."

Leia looked down at the kitten in her lap. She was so small and delicate and now purring in her lap. She had a cute face with big yellow eyes.

"So why a kitten? I've never even had a pet before?" Leia asked.

_Shouldn't they give me like a goldfish or something first? A kitten is a lot of responsibility..._

"Well we wanted to get an animal that you could take with you to school, and rats are gross and you can't cuddle with an owl." Her mother replied.

"You really can't. Beaks and talons are not welcoming." Her father agreed.

They arrived home a few minutes later and while her parents helped take her trunk in, Luke ran inside abruptly. Leia went into the entry room and waited a moment for Luke. After some noise that sounded like a latch being undone, Luke came back holding a black animal.

"YOU GOT A PUPPY!" Leia yelled, so happy for her brother. This is why they had acted strangely to the P-word in the car.

"I'VE NAMED HIM SPOCK."

"OH MY GOSH, I'LL NAME HER UHURA."

"Stop yelling!" her mother shouted out. The twins were too excited to remember that shouting is unpleasant. They both rolled their eyes and went into the living room and sat down on a couch in front of a large TV.

"Do they get along?" Leia asked, speaking of their baby animals.

"Yeah, they do, surprisingly. And Dad is heartbroken that we enjoy Star Trek more than Star Wars, but he can get over it."

"No one at Hogwarts will get the reference, but they'll probably see the name as normal by their standards."

"That's true."

"So how long have we had these?"

"Only for a few days... It came as a shock to me to see our parent bringing in animals one afternoon. I love them though... Uhura is so sweet though, really gentle."

"I'm a fan so far." Leia said watching the kitten and puppy play with each other.

"Oh, and they got Spock in black because all my clothes are black…"

"Dinner's almost ready!" Their mom shouted from the kitchen.

"You know what we should do..." Luke said looking to her sister mischievously.

"What?"

"We should play spies."

Leia's mouth opened in excitement.

Even between the ages of four and six, the Allen twins had been known to raise a few eyebrows. After seeing the movie _Spy Kids_, they had a game called 'Spies.' They would pretend to be special agents and have their hands in gun positions, hide behind walls, speak into non-existent walkie-talkies, give hand signals that neither understood, and roll across the floor to be sneaky. They tended to play this in public most often, like in super markets or on 'Bring your Son/Daughter to Work Day' where they twins always went together because they were attached at the hip. Leia hadn't thought about spies in a long time.

"Affirmative." Leia replied. It was typical of them to use 'Spy talk.'

"Are you prepared for this mission? It could be a tough one."

"I'm always ready, unlike what _your wife_ has told me."

They also both had spouses and children in this game for some odd reason. When they were in dying situations they'd say things like, 'Tell my husband I love him.'

"Don't bring my wife into this, she's got it hard enough as it is with three kids and a father that's always overseas."

"I haven't seen my husband in years, but I handle it. I'm really tough."

It was difficult to stiffen their giggles as they joked.

"Ready?" Luke asked nodding towards the kitchen.

"Let's go."

They scrambled over to the doorway and stood on either side against the wall. With non-existent gun in hand, they both made their ways to the kitchen by leaning against the walls. When they got to the kitchen doorway, Luke made up random hand signals that Leia pretended to understand. He got down on the floor and rolled his way through the doorway before his sister did the same.

Her mother noticed this.

"Not this crap again." Her mother said rolling her eyes.

The twins then crawled to table and did as they did in the past. They took their plates and sat under the table. It was much easier at a young age because they were smaller and didn't have to hunch over or keep their legs bent just to fit. It made them both feel even sillier, but it was totally worth the top of their heads hitting the table.

"We're being really sneaky." Leia said through giggles.

"I was hoping to have an actual conversation with my daughter, but I guess that's not happening." Her father said, annoyed that this old habit had come back.

"It's for my kids." Luke said sounding tough. "I have to put food on the table doing the only job I know how to do."

Leia laughed and then realized that they had company under the table. Spock and Uhura and decided to join them.

"We've got some new recruits." Leia said as the two animals made their stay under the table even more cramped.

"Their training must be compromised. There's no time." Leia replied seriously.

"Was there ever an actual story line to these spy missions? I only ever saw you guys rolling around on the floor." Her dad murmured, now laughing a little.

"I feel like the missions never really ended because our children aren't creative enough to come up with a plot line." Her mother replied.

"I think one time we tried to use the plot from a _Spy Kids_ movie but ended up forgetting how it happened so we just shot each other with finger guns." Luke said, sort of answering their questions.

"No wonder you guys didn't have friends until you grew out of it at age 7." Leia's mother snorted.

They spent the rest of the dinner taking dog and/or cat hair out of their food. The next days leading up to Christmas were spent walking around London and playing with their new best animal friends. Christmas morning they both received pet related gifts, like a sky blue suede cat collar with a Swarovski crystal in the center of the bow and a studded black leather dog collar and matching dog lead. That afternoon an owl came with a letter addressed to Leia.

_Thank you for giving me the only present that I enjoyed, even though it was completely unfair that you sent me a gift because we totally decided that we weren't doing that this year._

_I noticed you received a cat in the train station. I'm now frustrated that the gift I'm now going to give you will never be better than that._

_I love you._

_Draco._

Leia then had this goofy grin on her face when she thought about the gift she had gotten Draco. The second day of Christmas break Leia and her brother were walking around London and found a taxidermy shop. There she bought a taxidermy albino weasel mounted on a branch. Leia had lied and told Luke that it was for her dorm room.

Leia was sitting on her bed reading the letter, smiling. At that moment Spock nudged his way through the door and made failed attempts to hop on her bed. It was pretty adorable, but Leia helped him on her bed. The dog nipped at her hand for a moment, which held the letter before grabbing the letter right out of her hands.

"Spock, you can't read! You don't know what words are!" she said, blinded by cuteness. The black puppy then jumped off the bed and scurried out the door. Leia sighed for a moment, reflecting on the cuteness of puppies.

_Why haven't we had pets until now! So much wasted time. I can literally see no downside to owning an animal._

She then looked back at her hand that Spock had been playfully nibbling on. Then it hit her.

_That son of a bitch took my letter._

"Fuck." she said aloud before running out of her room.

_LUKE DOESN'T KNOW YET_. Her mind yelled at her.

The dog had somehow gotten down the stairs in record time because in the living room Luke sat lounging on the couch with a crumpled letter in his hands. He did not look amused.

_God dammit Spock! THIS IS WHY KURT HAD A SUCH BIGGER PART IN STAR TREK THAN YOU, YOU BASTARD PEICE OF SHIT._

"Leia..." he growled a little. She silently yelled angry thoughts at the innocent puppy.

"Woah, did Spock learn to write already?" Leia tried to lie.

"Take it." He said holding out the note. She took it and waited for him to say something.

"So?" she asked nervously.

"What?"

"Are you going to say something?"

"What is there to say?"

"What do you mean? Last time we talked you were encouraging me to go for Draco."

"I was encouraging you to recognize his feelings and not lead him along. I did not encourage you to date him."

"Well it's too late now."

"Do you love him?"

Leia hesitated.

"I-I-" She couldn't finish.

"You don't. You don't love him and you're risking yourself and him and you don't fucking love him."

"I-I can't sleep without him." Leia whispered.

"That's not love."

She looked into his face and saw her own frown on his face. Leia saw the look of light disgust and disappointment and recognized the face she sometimes gave herself in the mirror. Thin lips turned down a little, half sunken eyes looking at the ground, nose wrinkled slightly like there was a rotten smell in the air... Their lips. Their eyes. Their nose. The face they shared had never looked so disappointed.

"Fine." Leia walking out of the room. She walked back to her bathroom, her young kitten following her, and splashed water on her face. She took deep breaths. Then she looked in the mirror. She saw her brother's expression. Only this time it was her lips, her eyes, her nose... She tossed the note into the trashcan next to the sink. Draco's handwriting now lay along with bits of used floss, tampon wrappers, and a few tissues. Leia left her bathroom and went to her bed and pulled Uhura on the bed with her.

The kitten was tired after a long day of playing with the energetic puppy. She curled up next to Leia's waist and fell asleep.

Leia sighed. At least now she had a living creature that would not judge her on her life choices.

_This next year will be better._ She thought to herself as she found sleep coming to her.


	15. Chapter 15

So I only have a few more finals, and this is how I'm procrastinating. Somewhat exciting news on my front, I've decided to drop out of fashion school and pursue creative writing. So, I guess that's good news for you guys. Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy and review.

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Chapter 15

The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon & Garfunkel

Leia sighed as she drank her coffee back in the Slytherin common room. The rest of Christmas break was tense, to say the least. She and her brother stopped playing 'Spies' after the Draco conversation and only spoke when it was vital. She had never felt so far away from her brother.

Uhura now lied on the spit table with Leia and played with a cat toy. It was a small pink fish and made an odd crumple noise of tin foil and fabric every time it moved. Theo and Astoria joined her before she could think for too long.

"You would think with a kitten you'd be more popular." Astoria said while grabbing the toy and dancing it above the kitten's face.

"I guess this just proves that I can't be helped." Leia responded flatly.

"If a cat won't make you popular nothing will." Theo sighed while scratching the back Uhura's head affectionately.

"I'd try table dancing before giving up hope." Astoria advised.

"I have terrible rhythm. It would be uncomfortable for everyone involved."

"Does rhythm matter if you're naked though?"

"Good question. What do you think Theo?"

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "it probably wouldn't matter if you could do parlor tricks while table dancing, but I really wouldn't know about things like that."

"There are things you don't know about?" Leia asked.

"Table dancing is one out of maybe ten. Like, I never got the rundown of Leia's holiday." he said looking at her, "how is your brother?"

"He's good. He got a black lab puppy for his Christmas present."

"And what's his name?" Theo asked almost ironically.

"Spock. It's a Star Trek character, like Uhura. How was yours? Both of you."

"Fine, I guess. Got more things that I don't need, like lectures from my dad about the importance of choosing a husband who has pure blood." Astoria said dreamily.

"You're fourteen." Leia said slightly astonished.

"But you're never too young for the talk!" the youngest of the three said with a fake smile.

"And Theo? Your holiday?" Leia asked, tentatively.

"My aunt doesn't know what to do with me. She's never had a kid before, much less a teenage boy, and she hasn't actually lived with another person since she divorced her husband, ten years ago. She didn't know what to get me so she just gave me some money..." Theo said sadly. Leia could see him hurting. He had never brought up the subject of living with his aunt before. The pain showed slightly on his face. "But kittens tend to make everything better."

With that, his face turned into a slight smile. Leia was relieved.

"Dinner is soon." Astoria said while standing up.

The other two followed her, leaving the kitten in the common room with the other cats. House elves came down every morning and evening to feed the animals, so Leia left her kitten to wait while they ate.

"She's so _cute_." Draco said, late that evening, while holding up Uhura to look at her better.

"It's almost stupid how cute she is." Leia agreed watching Uhura crawl all over Draco. "I think she likes you."

"Her tongue tickles!" Draco squealed.

Leia laughed.

"How was your holiday?"

After she said it the realized she might have just ruined the moment.

"Not amazing. Your weasel did make all the difference. It went from awful to slightly better than awful."

Leia frowned.

"Christmas shouldn't be awful." she said, only realizing how clichéd her comment sounded after the words came out of her mouth.

"It's my mum... She's so stressed out about my dad that she can't even function properly. I don't think she's been sleeping either." he paused and they sat in a sad silence before he spoke again. "Other than getting a ball of cuteness, how was the holiday at the Allen household?"

Leia sighed. She might as well tell him.

"It started really fantastically, like I got a kitten and my brother got a puppy. What could go wrong? But then Luke ended up seeing the note you sent me... He was so upset he just stopped talking to me all together. He tends to just shut down when something doesn't go his way."

"He doesn't approve."

"He only really knows of your reputation, like he's probably reading the Profit now... He's not going to tell anyone or do anything about it though. He'll just mope until he really wants to tell me something."

"I..." Draco started. "I feel so awful... causing a riff between you and your bloody _twin_ brother."

The guilt read on his face.

"Draco, I'm not too worried about Luke and me. We've been through much worse."

He looked at Leia intently and then nodded without response. Leia took it upon herself to change the subject.

"Tell me a story from your childhood. A non-depressing one."

"That's good that you clarified, because my tortured childhood is ridden with awful memories." Draco said ironically. "I had a relatively normal childhood, I mean with the Dark Lord supposed to be finished, it's not like I grew up around Death Eater meetings every Wednesday or anything... I remember my father buying me a lot of gifts. I had brooms, notice the plural, before even coming to Hogwarts. I remember my dad taught me to fly. I was painfully bad at it for a while... My dad just lied to me though and told me I was a natural and brilliant and was going to be professional and whatever. Thank Merlin I had time to practice before I became to Hogwarts, that would have been embarrassing."

Leia laughed.

"Being bad at something your first time? How could you!"

Draco snorted.

"Well you weren't there, but during the first flying lesson, first year, the teacher left the area for some reason and I flew up into the air and dared Potter to get something I had... some object…I don't remember, but the bastard just hopped on his broom the first time he ever touched one and was probably better than me at this point, and caught whatever item I had of his. He then became the first 11 year old in the history of Hogwarts to join the Quiddich team... bastard." Draco added while Leia was laughing at him.

"And the hatred started just like that."

"Actually, it was before that when on the train I told him he should be friends with me and he turned me down."

Leia laughed more at his story.

"He wouldn't be your friend! That's so funny. Tell me more Harry vs. Draco stories, these are hilarious."

"Well, my second year I remember we had a dueling club for maybe a few months, and at one point I dueled Harry. My first and only move was to conjure a snake, something my dad taught me and something I figured was really Slytherinesque and cool. So I conjure the snake and think to myself, 'Well my job's done, now I can just wait until this snake bites and kills Potter.' That plan backfired because he spoke parseltongue. I'll never forget him just talking to his snake... I thought I had done so well, and he just starts chatting up that bloody snake like Potter's known him for years. His was the same year that I was too busy insulting Potter to notice that the snitch was right next to my ear, a move that cost us the game..."

"That's so stupid!" She said through laughter.

"Oh, probably the most stupid move on my part was third year, when the dementors first came to Hogwarts. We had heard that Potter was scared of them, so during a Ravenclaw vs Griffyndor Quiddich match, I got on Goyle's shoulders and Crabb was on Flint's under these black sheets, because we were going to pretend to be dementors. The problem was that we were in the stands and that doesn't make sense. So then Harry saw us, and hit us with his patronus and knocked us down. It was awful."

Leia couldn't stop laughing.

"I like how it seemed logical that dementors would totally just be, like, watching some Quiddich in the stands." She said between giggles.

"It was not a well taught out plan. Oh, fourth year, when the tri-wizard tournament happened? Well, as you know, he was chosen as a champion and so I go up to him and say something like, 'I bet my father you won't last ten minutes in this tournament, and he thinks you won't last five.' And Potter just brushed it off. And then he goes and wins the whole tournament. I mean, by default is still wining."

By this point Draco was laughing at his own embarrassing moments.

Leia was almost crying.

"You should write a book of all these moments. It would sell millions."

"There are more... But first you have to tell me several embarrassing moments about yourself."

Leia thought for a moment.

"A lot of the most embarrassing things were in recent memory. Like, the multiple times I've used the word 'Satan' when yelling at someone. I sometimes come up with mental lists of insults I could throw at someone, but I always manage to forget them. Your stories are just better than mine..."

"Bullocks! I demand to know at least one embarrassing pre-Hogwarts story right this instant."

Her brain scrambled and then remembered.

"Okay, so do you remember the guy I mentioned named Eugene Gray?"*

"Cow poetry?"

"Correct." She said in surprise. "So in eighth grade, third/fourth year equivalent, there was a spring fling dance, and at the time I had a huge crush on Eugene. So I asked him to go with me, and he agreed, but only because we went as a group. And you have to understand that I desperately wanted this night to turn into my first real boyfriend, like someone I would have sex with more than once, but that didn't happen. We never even really danced. And then while we were sitting around on the outskirts of the dance floor he read me this cow poem he was working on. It was about this beautiful cow and how this steer had a huge crush on her but the cow would never notice yatta, yatta, yatta. So at the end of the poem I ask him if this poem is about me."

"And?"

"He says no, it's about him and Winona Ryder. She's a muggle movie star who is much older than both of us. And when I went home that night I cried myself to sleep and vowed to get revenge against Winona. So yeah, that was pretty embarrassing..."

Draco laughed louder than she had expected him too.

"I could just imagine you in your tears being like, 'Winona, you bitch.'" he said laughing.

"I don't want to talk about my embarrassing stories anymore."

She said pouting a little.

"Fine, I haven't gotten a proper night's sleep in a while."

"Neither have I. It was weird trying to sleep without you. I felt like I was just lying in bed waiting for the other girls to fall asleep, so I could sneak out and see you."

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Draco kissed her head. They got into the lying position that they were normally in, but this time Uhura slept in a curled up ball on Draco's chest.

"Have you ever been on a broom before?" He asked quietly.

"No, never. I've got a good thing going with the ground and I wouldn't want to make it jealous."

"What?"

"Never mind."

The three, boy, girl, and cat, fell asleep in a wave of small snores.

Leia woke up suddenly and sat up with an involuntary gasp. Draco and the cat woke up to sudden movement.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, slightly worried but more tired.

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione found out about us and I tried to explain that it wasn't possible because you didn't have genitalia but they didn't believe me. This is all your fault, Draco, if you weren't such a slut they might have believed me. Thanks a lot, Draco."

She said getting angrier towards the end. She was still mostly asleep though.

"You're not making sense."

"I'm making perfect sense: no one would believe a whore doesn't have genitals that would be ridiculous."

"But why is that the first lie you go to? Why not just say, 'no I hate that guy' or something much more believable?"

"Don't over think it, Draco. I'm not gonna question dream-logic. I've been down that road many times and it leads you nowhere. Like the time I dreamed that my eyebrows turned into like tiny furry monsters and ate my face."

"Are you awake?"

"Not really."

"It's five thirty."

She groaned into the couch.

"Fuck." She moaned with emphasis on the hard 'K' sound. "I don't want to move ever."

Draco moved her face from the couch and kissed her softly. He leant his for head on hers and then kissed her jaw line for a moment.

"Leia, I like you a lot…" Draco whispered in her ear, "but you should go brush your teeth."

Leia started laughing so hard she rolled off the couch.

"That is not what I thought you were going to say." She said while sitting up and rubbing her head for a moment.

"What did you think I was going to say?"

"I don't know, maybe some romantic gooey stuff that I'd have to try really hard not to roll my eyes at."

"I always assumed that I would be the cynic in any relationship I ever got into, but I was wrong. I also assumed that I would always be the one to wear the pants."

"Please, if anything, all you wear is the strap-on in this relationship."

Draco covered his face while laughing and Leia kissed his cheek quickly and grabbed her cat before tip-toeing up the stairs to pretend to be sleeping. In her bed she pretended to sleep, and even as her cat lay next to her, she missed Draco already.

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*Don't remember Eugene what's-his-face? See Chapter 11


	16. Chapter 16

Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing! This particular chapter to longer to write, it's kind of a pivotal point... Well you'll see what I mean. Ugh much love to everyone. Enjoy.

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Chapter 16

Hell of a Life by Kanye West

Leia wasn't sure about what it was today, maybe because it was Valentine's Day, or something else, but Leia felt like she just had this itch that she couldn't scratch. She sat through potions barely paying any attention to what was happening. Instead she just focused on the tiny beat of sweat that was inching its way down Draco's neck. She kept on rubbing her legs together in a sad attempt to cause some sort of friction before she just attacked Draco in the middle of Slughorn's lecture. She kept on moving around in her chair anxiously. She had a feeling Theo, who was sitting next to her, could notice. It was fairly obvious to anyone who was paying attention to her, but thankfully no one was. The class ended, finally, and Leia stood up right away and walked quickly out of the room. She kept on walking until she made it to the closest and most secluded place she could think of, the abandoned girls' bathroom.

She ran into the closest stall rubbed herself through her panties. She leaned against the door of the stall moaning as she heard someone walk in. The person took quick steps and stopped right outside her bathroom stall. The person knocked twice on the door. Leia had a pretty good idea who it was. She hadn't stopped touching herself.

"O-occupied." Leia gasped smartly.

"I could feel you staring at me that whole bloodly class. You were just rubbing your legs together thinking dirty thoughts weren't you?" Draco said in a harsh whisper.

"Who is this?" She asked in a moan.

"What were you thinking that made you squirm? Was it me eating you out or me fucking you hard?"

"You really are so self-centered, Draco." She felt her own pleasure building up quickly.

"Let me in."

She wasn't going to tell him no.

Leia turned around and swung the door open and grabbed him immediately. She pulled him by the neck, kissing him hard, as she wrapped one leg around him while grinding into him. Draco reacted quickly, sticking his tongue down her throat, grabbing her ass, and trying to take off her shirt. The stall door shut and locked and she pushed him up against it dramatically. Their hands were everywhere and the sounds of their grunts and gasps filled the entire bathroom.

Draco reached up Leia's skirt to feel how wet she was- dripping already and she moaned loudly. His fingers found all of her spots immediately. She ground herself into his fingers restlessly.

"I want you now, Draco." Leia growled, angry.

"Fine." He removed his fingerers and turned her around and slapped her ass hard. Leia yelped, kind of into it. "But you're mine now." He said fisting her panties down to her knees.

He unzipped his pants and pushed into her roughly. Leia groaned happily, louder than she normally would have. Draco started off slow, as he normally did and then started to increase his speed.

"You feel so good" Draco moaned as he moved her shirt collar to start biting her neck. Leia enjoyed the rush of the sharp pain.

"More." She said throatily.

Draco started to comply before they both heard a noise neither of them could ignore: the bathroom door swinging open and wet footsteps walking in. Both of them froze.

_HE DIDN'T LOCK THE DOOR._

It didn't look good for either of them. Leia, the renegade Slytherin who sides with Harry Potter with her panties around her ankles pushed up against a bathroom stall door with the Death Eater Slytherin prince biting her neck, feeling her breasts and not to mention his dick up her cunt. They were both fucked, only now in many senses of the word.

For terrible, long, painful moments there was no noise. They listened to each other's increasing heartbeats. Draco removed his mouth from Leia's neck slowly and silently to look through the crack in the stall door. When he saw who it was he swallowed and removed himself from Leia. He pulled Leia's skirt back down and started to help her pull her panties back up. Leia started moving to pull them up the rest of the way. Leia didn't dare look, especially because the person had not moved or made any noise. She started buttoning back her buttons as Draco tucked his shirt back in and zipped up his pants. Leia turned around and his face was unreadable. He adjusted her shirt and looked her over. He fixed a few hairs and Leia did the same for him.

"When I open the stall door, don't stop, just leave. Understand?" Draco whispered so softly Leia could barely hear. She nodded, nervous. "I'll see you later." He added before kissing her lightly.

Draco unlocked the door and swung it open while Leia turned around. She walked with a level head past Snape, who stood in the bathroom motionless, without taking a second look. As she left the only sounds were her wet footsteps and the sound of Draco coughing up vomit.

She didn't see Draco or Snape for the rest of that day. Leia was terrified. She literally had no idea what was going to happen now. Her only though process was that Snape was going to tell you-know-who and she was going to be murdered within the week. She and her family were dead. Her hands couldn't stop shaking and she paced the common room until he got there that night. When he finally appeared, he sat her down calmly.

"I've taken care of it-" He said evenly.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Leia said cutting him off.

"We have nothing to worry about."

"What? I want an explanation right now."

He held her face affectionately.

"Leia, breathe. Everything is going to be okay, understand me?"

"No I don't understand you at all, Draco."

"Snape is not going to tell anyone. He has our backs. He's going to make sure everything will be okay."

Leia sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment. She breathed. She looked at Draco again, with his hand still on her face.

"Don't lie to me, Draco. Please. Have the decency this once to tell me the truth. I know you've been lying to me, I'm not stupid."

Draco removed his hand and took a deep breath.

"I was scared too, but I know things about Snape's history and I know we can trust him-"

"He caught us _fucking_, please explain to me how everything is going to be all right."

"He sympathizes with us, Leia. I can't give you specifics, but apparently when he was young he fell in love with someone who was of less-than-pure blood. While today may not have been the ideal way to find out about our thing, he told me he is going to protect me, and by extension us."

_The unbreakable vow._

Leia realized that if Snape swore to protect Draco then she might get a piece of that. If you-know-who knew about their "thing" than Draco would be in just as much trouble as she would.

Leia breathed.

"Okay. I trust your judgement."

_That's a lie._

There was silence for a moment.

"I actually have a Valentine's Day thing planned for you."

"Really?"

_Is it sex? Because after Snape catching us I'm really not in the mood._

"Yeah, but we have to sneak out."

"And how is that going to happen?"

"I know who's patrolling and where they'll be at what time. We have to leave in seven minutes though. Get a coat and shoes on and come back."

Six minutes later they were back in the common room. Draco put a finger over his mouth to indicate silence. Leia nodded. They weaved through the castle slowly. Draco led her, and stopped at every corner. Leia lost track of where they were going and was sure they were lost, but never said a word. After what seemed like hours, they were outside. It was colder than Leia had expected. They were near the Quidditch field. All of the sudden Draco picked Leia up and ran with her over to the stadium. Leia was surprised Draco could carry her. His arms had looked pretty wimpy ever since he quit the team, but he made it. Leia gripped on to him tightly in fear that she would fall. She was still too scared to yell at him.

When they arrived Draco said through panting breaths, "Okay, we can talk now."

"Why did you carry me here?" Leia said as he let her stand.

"So you couldn't escape from your first flying lesson."

"WHAT? Oh fuck no, that is not happening." Leia said feeling stupid she hadn't put it together.

"Yes it is." Draco said determinedly as he gripped her hand and led her into the Slytherin locker room. She tried to drag her feet, but he forced her to move. He grabbed a broom out of a locker and dragged her out, literally. The whole time she chanted, "I'm not getting on the broom. I'm not getting on the broom. I'm not getting on that fucking broom."

Draco just smiled at her fear.

Draco stopped and turned to her once they had made there was to the middle of the field. She hadn't stopped chanting. He kissed her hard to shut him up. He smiled when he pulled away and she was silent.

"You're either going to get on this broom with me or I will leave you here in the cold."

Leia looked around for an out. Only Draco knew the way to get back without getting caught.

_Fuck_.

"Fine. But I won't like it."

Draco rolled his eyes. He mounted the broom and she did the same and wrapped her arms tightly around him.

"On three?" He asked.

Leia grunted.

"One… and three." Draco said as they shot off the ground.

_WHAT HAPPENED TO TWO?_

Leia screamed her ass off as they flew through the night. After a few minutes of terror, she was only slightly less terrified. She was holding on to Draco for dear life.

Not only was she scared of heights, but she didn't really trust a piece of wood to be the difference between her and falling from 200 feet in the air. She stopped screaming because her throat and ears started hurting. Draco continued to fly at ridiculous speeds. He slowed down when they got to the Black Lake.

"Leia, look." He nudged.

Up until this point, Leia had hid her face in Draco's back. She moved her head slightly.

It really was beautiful. Everything: the lake, the castle, the woods.

"That's nice." She said quietly. She was not a fan of this whole broom thing.

"Do you want to go back-"

"Yes." She said without a second thought.

He took her back, slower this time. They landed and walked back to the locker room in silence.

"So did you like it?" Draco said while he put the broom away, but he already knew the answer.

"No it was terrifying."

"Worse than Snape catching us shagging?"

"Nothing is that horrible."

Draco laughed and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm sorry, I honestly didn't think you would hate it that much."

"It's okay. It's not totally your fault you enjoy being at dangerous heights in the air on a piece of wood."

"It's a magic piece of wood."

Leia laughed.

"Happy Valentine's Day, I guess." She said sadly. It had been a weird day.

"Do you remember last Valentine's Day?" Draco asked quietly.

Leia made a face.

"I remember the day after."

Draco laughed and then looked at his watch.

"We still have 39 more minutes until we can go back."

Leia sat down on a bench and took off her coat, revealing striped pajamas. Draco threw his off and sat on the floor facing her.

Draco had this look on his face like he knew exactly how to fill this chunk of time. Leia was still not really in the mood since being on a _fucking_ broom, so she was curious on how he would try to convince her otherwise. She knew he would never make her do something she didn't want to do, but he would try to talk her into it.

_This should be good._

"I can tell you right now, it's not happening."

"What's not happening?" He said innocently.

"I'm not going to have sex with you in the Slytherin boy's locker room."

"But you _would_ have sex with me in the abandoned girl's bathroom?"

"That's neither here nor there."

Draco smirked.

"I never got to finish what I started, which really is a shame."

She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure _that_ was the shameful part of what happened this morning."

"You really do have such a clever tongue." He said in a deeper voice than usual.

They both paused. Leia shifted her legs.

"I can't tell you how horrible it was after last year, to know how it felt to be with you but not to be able to experience you again. My body ached for months. I kept on being overcome with the desire to throw you on the desk and fuck you until you couldn't walk. I had to take so many cold showers because all I wanted to do was eat your pussy raw."

Leia started sweating. The locker room seemed to get a lot hotter in the last 30 seconds. She could feel herself pulsing and getting wetter by the moment.

"Every day I'd see you and imagine my head in between your legs. All I wanted was to make you cum over and over again until it stopped being fun. Your short skirts really did kill me. I'd see your legs and it would take all of my will power to keep me from spreading them apart. I had to put all of my energy into looking for the DA because if not I would have spent the whole bloody semester wanking off. One time I remember I saw you bend over from behind and I had to-"

"Fine, you win." Leia said breathily as she unbuttoned the top few buttons of her shirt. She was already overheating.

Draco smiled and scooted his way up between her legs. She lifted her bum to help him remove her pants. He stopped at her panties. They were Slytherin green, an unintentional choice. He licked his lips.

With the flat of his tongue, his made a line from the bottom to top of her slit over her panties. Leia's body shivered and let out a groan. He repeated that a few times, and got equal responses. She had put her head back and forced her eyes shut. Draco saw this and snapped the elastic making her jump.

"Look at me." He growled. She looked down to see eager grey eyes staring back at her. He pushed her panties to the side without removing them and tasted her labia. Draco had seemed to have memorized every inch of her because he did all of this while staring straight up at her. He knew exactly where every fold started and ended and he was now purposely skipping over the most sensitive spot. He would dip his tongue in and out of her just to taunt her.

"We don't exactly have all of the time in the w-world Draco." She had a shake in her voice. Her knees were already quivering a little.

"Fine. I'll fuck you now." He said with almost anger in his voice. Or maybe it was just frustration. It had been a stressful day. His voice wasn't playful. If it were a different person Leia would have been scared, but she trusted him. He stood up and pulled her pants down. She had kind of just expected him to make her cum with his mouth, but she accepted it.

"Get on the floor." He demanded. She moved the floor awkwardly, kind of scared of what was going to happen next. She sat on the floor, looking up at him.

"Ass up." Draco said in the same voice.

She moved with her elbows and knees on the ground. She was still dripping, even with Draco's tone. He knelt down and entered her without warning. She yelped. He fucked her roughly, pulling almost all the way out and going all the way in. He reached under her and rubbed her clit with the same fast pace. She came undone quickly and he came soon after.

It was not the greatest sex they had ever had, at all. Draco pulled out and lied down next her. Neither looked at one another, but both were panting.

"We have 10 minutes." He said unmoving. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"You know. It's just been a long day…"

Leia figured he had all this pent up stress he had from being terrified Snape would tell You-Know-Who about their "thing" and they'd all be murdered. She could forgive him for less than spectacular sex.

"You're telling me." She said agreeing.

He grabbed her hand lightly.

"We're going to be okay though, you know that, right?"

Leia wondered if he was just trying to reassure himself or if he actually meant it. Leia paused for a long time.

"I know. I trust you on this."

_Lie._

They got dressed silently and left the locker room without a word. Leia let Draco lead her through the castle and back into their common room. They went back to their couch and didn't say a word. Even when they woke up the next morning, they said nothing.


	17. Chapter 17

Hey, enjoy yourselves folks. Read, review, ect.

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Chapter 17

House of the Rising Sun by the Animals

Days started feeling longer than weeks, and weeks like months. Every moment would drag on except when Leia was with Draco, and then time would fly right out of her fingers. Without him, she feared that word had leaked out about her and Draco and that her days were numbered. With him, this fear was never discussed (much less any of the events that happened on Valentine's Day) so she could effectively avoid it mentally. Time in general was confusing because they were in March, a fact that seemed impossible. She was pretty sure it was actually still January and she was right and that everyone was crazy and there was a huge calendar conspiracy that only she knew about. Leia figured this is how creationists must feel.

"Where did he get the mead?" Leia asked Harry, in front of the trio plus Neville, Ginny, and Luna in the library. Leia sat across from Harry and next to Ron. At the beginning of this conversation, Leia was hoping they'd decide that she could be their friend again. Leia had given up hope.

"Three Broomsticks." Harry spat.

Ron had recently been the almost victim to some poisonous mead that was Slughorn's intended gift for Dumbledore.

"Not going there again." Leia murmured worriedly about the other times she had been there and ingested things.

"You do see this is, don't you?" Harry asked angrily.

"A hilarious series of random events?" Leia asked praying that's what he assumed.

"It's the second assassination attempt on Dumbledore this year."

"Well, if it is, then this assassin is really bad at it. He or she has almost killed two people in the process but hasn't even touched the target? That's just bad planning. And furthermore, wouldn't there be more attempts by now?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Like, imagine you're an assassin and your job is to kill Dumbledore."

"I don't like where this is going." Harry mumbled.

"Hear me out, so you poisoned this mead that you knew was going to be a Christmas present. Wouldn't you expect Dumbledore to be dead by now? But he's still alive. So logically, wouldn't you scrap that plan, maybe come February. Wouldn't you have tried again by now?"

"That makes sense." Neville agreed.

"Furthermore, if you look at the two incidents, the assassin has learned nothing from his or her first experience. Look at how that plan went wrong: there were way too many random variables. Katie Bell could have been stopped on her way to his office by a teacher and told to hand over the package. She could have easily killed herself by touching it, which almost happened. Hell, even if Dumbledore got the necklace, he might have never even touched it and just hung it up on a wall or something. Then this time, the assassin is gambling that Slughorn gives the bottle to Dumbledore and doesn't give it to someone else or drink it himself. I mean, even if Dumbledore had gotten it, he might have never even opened it. If it is an assassin, which I doubt, they're a pretty shitty one and I wouldn't lose sleep over him or her. They need to learn not to half-ass two things and instead whole-ass one thing.*"

Ginny nodded.

"I agree." she said making eye contact with Leia.

"But if this person is so inexperienced, then couldn't it be a teenager? Couldn't he or she be a student?" Harry asked, Leia.

"That's a fair point. But if it is a student then I doubt You-Know-Who is behind it. If he was, then I'm sure there would be better organization and such an important task wouldn't be put in the hands of a teenager. He would have to be keeping tabs on this mission, it's far too important to fully trust some kid."

"And Malfoy's been a mess since his dad went to Askaban... I doubt he has the mental energy to even attempt to do any of these things." Hermione said after being quiet for some time.

_Well I wouldn't call him a "mess." I think I'm more of a mess than he is. He's not a fucking sitting duck._

"Leia, could you, ya know..." Ron started but then stopped after a moment.

"What?" Leia asked impatiently.

"You know..."

"What I think Ron is trying to say is, Leia could you get information from Malfoy?" Hermione clarified.

Leia sighed. She had secretly wondered if they'd ever propose this.

_Does this mean we're friends now?_

"I don't think that's a good idea." Leia started before pausing for a moment. "He's barely said two words to me all year because Parkinson has him on a string. Even if he did... you know, have feelings for me, I feel like he'd never tell me anything. He knows I'm friends with you guys, and even if he did think about saying anything I bet he'd be too embarrassed to tell me. But really, he has barely even looked at me since the beginning of sixth year."

_Lie, lie, truth, possible truth, super lie._

"Well, I guess it was worth asking, thanks Leia." Harry said like he had already known the response to that suggestion.

The next day, bright and early, Leia walked into poisons. Slughorn had rearranged the seating for some mysterious reason. Leia sighed as she saw the board with the name 'Allen' next to the name 'Malfoy' at a table in the front. So not only would they be standing next to each other and possibly working together, but everyone would be watching them.

_Shit._

To keep from being suspicious, whenever they were not alone in the Slytherin common room or the Room of Requirement, they were cold to one another. Neither really noticed the other's existence. They'd be the now very occasional rude comment from Pansy and Draco would laugh with them and Leia would sneer at all of them equally. But now they'd have to interact with one another.

_Fuck._

Leia figured she should act slightly angry, because that's what she'd feel if she was with Blaise or Pansy. To show her anger she plopped her books down on her desk a little louder than she should have and sent Hermione and Harry pained expressions.

_I should get an Oscar for this._

Draco sat down similarly, but rather than a pained expression, he gave one of disgust. Leia felt like it was a challenge. Who could pretend to hate the other better?

_He doesn't stand a chance._

"So today we're..." Slughorn started.

Soon they were told to gather materials. At that point one of them would be appointed to get materials and the other to read instructions and such. Instead of having a friendly conversation, Leia just looked at Draco with a scowl.

"Go." She demanded.

"Fine." Draco said back with equal poison in his voice.

They were in pretty much silence while prepping. Leia was documenting everything they did and Draco was measuring.

"How much peppermint?" Draco growled.

"Literacy is a skill you really have to practice to fully master, Malfoy."

Draco hadn't opened his book. He did and turned pages angrily to look at the measurements.

_I'm winning._

"You could have just told me."

"It's not my fault you need help on your reading skills."

Draco sneered, but Leia could tell he was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.

For the rest of the class they made their potion silently. On lookers must have guessed that the lack of communication was due to anger and hatred. The truth was that the two didn't need to use words to complete a potion; their non-verbal communication spoke louder but went unnoticed. It wasn't until the last few minutes that Draco opened his mouth.

Leia's hand barely brushed his, but she didn't even notice until he said something.

"_Don't touch me._" He said louder than she had expected.

"It's not my fault my touch affects you in such embarrassing ways."

"You wish, _Allen_. Your grubby hands disgust me."

Leia accidentally rolled her eyes.

_Oh, shit, I'm supposed to be actually insulted by what he says._

"Fuck off, you filthy little mudblood!" Leia said loudly.

Draco was now biting his bottom lip painfully to keep from smiling.

This insult was perfect because it made no sense. Draco was very hygienic, tall, and obviously pureblood.

"What did you just call me?"

"Yeah, Mudblood Malfoy. Has a nice ring to it. Alliteration is awesome."

She then gave herself a high five which might have looked stupid, but she realized that after the fact.

Many people were now staring at them in shock.

"I don't know how to respond to that." He said quietly.

"Well, I guess you're stupid too."

"Well, you're nothing but a Death Eater." Draco said now with an amused smile on his face that he tried to make into a smirk. Leia saw through it, but was caught off guard by his comment.

"Please Malfoy, street gangs aren't my style. I'm lone wolf."

"Is that why you have no friends?"

"Well, at least I'm not the lead speaker at the douche bag convention."

She heard Harry laugh.

"Well, at least I don't have a dick growing out of the side of my face."

_What?_

"Alright, vagina mouth, now you're just being ridiculous."

"That's one more vagina than you have."

_That one was pretty good._

"Well, at least my life isn't one unfortunate failure after another."

Draco's smile faded.

That insult was actually accurate. Leia's smile faded as well, and guilt bubbled up in her. She had meant like failing at pretending to be a dementor or making friends with Harry Potter. She realized that failure might apply to his life in other ways that Leia didn't want to think about.

Leia opened her mouth to apologize, but at that moment class was dismissed. They left in silence and walked in separate directions.

"I'm so sorry, Draco." Leia said sitting in front of a large window in the room of requirement later that afternoon. Draco sat next to her, looking at her thoughtfully.

"Leia, I understood what you meant, and it would have actually made me laugh if… it's just in recent months I've felt like I've failed. I feel like I've failed you by not being able to hold your hand in front of other people… I've failed by not being able to lov- to show affection for you in public."

Leia wanted to call bullshit on that answer. It might have been true, but Leia felt like there was something more to it.

"Really? Is that it?"

Draco almost smiled.

"Do you feel like I've failed at more things?"

"No, it's just keeping 'us' a secret is a two way street. I can't let other people know about this either. I mean a lot of people barely trust me as it is."

"I feel like that's my fault too."

"No it's not. If my tie would be any other colour than they probably wouldn't question my loyalty."

"They sound like shitty friends."

"You're one to talk about shitty friends. Where does Pansy think you are right now?"

Draco looked away and almost blushed.

"Private tutoring session with Snape."  
"She keeps you on a tight leash. You're not fucking her, right?"

"Leia, no. Never again. Blaise would kill me anyway."

"Are they fucking?"

"Probably, but I would rather not think about that."

Leia laughed.

"What about the golden child and Weaselette?" He asked, curious.

"They're dating, but I really don't know anything about their anything."

"Is Weaselbee still with Brown?"

"No, not as of late. Apparently, while in the hospital wing she came to visit and in his sleep he was moaning another girl's name."

"Granger?"

"Of course."

Draco snorted.

"I'll have you know I called both of those relationships when I was twelve."

Leia laughed. Draco was nothing if not intuitive, but this was a little obvious.

"I bet you did."

Draco was quiet for a moment before he asked a question softly.

"How is Weasley?"

"He's fine now. He could have died easily if it wasn't for Harry. Since when do you care?"

Draco furrowed his brow.

"Just wondering… Speaking of which, any news on Katie Bell?"

"No, I haven't heard about her in months. She's still recovering."

Draco winced.

_Please don't let Harry be right…_

"Do you think the two incidents are connected?" Leia asked, as Draco seemed lost in thought.

"No, not other than they're two students that ended up in a hospital."

Leia could feel him lying to her, but she couldn't do anything about it. In honesty, she didn't want to know the truth anymore. The lies were scary enough as it is.

*Source: Ron Swanson


	18. Chapter 18

What? Two uploads in one day? What is this MADNESS? This one is kind of short, so I gave you guys a freebie. Read, review.

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Chapter 18

The Child is Gone by Fiona Apple

Leia was studying with Hermione in the library. They'd all of the sudden become friends again after she told Draco off. Leia tried not to think about it. There was a pause in the conversation about when to use _Brackium Emendo_ and when to use _Episkey_ and Leia took advantage.

"Do you know anything about Legilimency?" Leia asked gently.

"Actually, I was just reading up on the subject." Hermione started as she reached into her bag. "I still have the book I found… Why do you ask?"

Hermione wasn't looking up at Leia as she flipped through the pages.

"Just curious… it seems like an interesting concept."

"I found it fascinating… here we are, 'Legilimency is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings. A person who practices this art is known as a Legilimens. Legilimens do not condone Legilimency being compared to 'mind reading' because it is an oversimplification. Through Legilimency one can accurately access if a person is lying, as well as delve into their thoughts, emotions, and memories. Highly skilled Legilimens can also influence a mind that they invade. This is a talent that can be done wandlessly and wordlessly with enough skill. The opposite of Legilimency is Occlumency, which may be used to shield one's mind from the invasion and influence of a Legilimens. Many times these skills are taught alongside one another for greater understanding. Most Legilimens are trained in Occlumency, as most Occlumens are skilled in Legilimency.'"

When Hermione looked up at Leia, she saw the worried look on Leia's face.

"Leia, are you worried someone's been…" Hermione seemed hesitant to finish her sentence.

"Um, sorry Hermione, but I've got to go look after my cat." Leia said the first excuse that came to her head. She stood up and gathered her books quickly and left before Hermione could fully process what just happened.

_Thank God I have a cat so I can use that as an excuse now…_

Leia had planned on running to her common room, but stopped at the girls' bathroom on the way. The place was empty. She went over to a sink and splashed some water on her face and took deep breaths. She looked at her reflection as she thought for a moment. The only sound was the drip from a neighboring sink. Drip, drip drip.

_Okay, so maybe Draco is 'delving' into my thoughts, emotions and memories… but why would he be trained to do that in the first place? And how could he have gotten so good at it so fast? How can I know for sure?_

Leia looked at herself for another minute or two. She looked worried. She took a few more deep breaths. She grabbed a paper towel and dried her face. She washed her hands and then dried them. She sighed again. And then she knew.

Drip, drip, drip.

_Chess._

Leia sat across from Draco in the Slytherin common room with a chess board in-between them while everyone else was asleep. Uhura lay next to the board on the table, already asleep.

"I hate chess." Draco crumbled slightly.

"Variety is the spice of life." She said as she set everything up. She hadn't played wizard chess before, but she guessed it had the same rules as muggle chess.

"You know they'll align themselves if you'd give them a chance." Draco said referring to the chess pieces.

"What?" Leia said looking up at him with a confused look on her face.

When she had paused the pieces took that as their opportunity to move and they walked across the board into their respective positions. Leia wasn't expecting that.

"I was not aware the pieces moved."

_Well then._

"You've never played wizard chess?"

"Nope."

Draco chuckled.

"From my understanding, it's the same as muggle chess only better in every way."

Leia made a face.

"For that comment, I'm going first."

As those words came out of Leia's mouth, she realized that she hadn't played chess in a very long time and the rules were misty in her memory.

Leia moved a pawn forward two spaces. It squirmed in her hand.

"They'll move for you."

"What?"

"Just say the piece and where it's going and it will move for you. Like this, pawn move to E5."

"Oh, well, pawn to B4."

The game started quiet normally, they both lost a few pieces but game play got more intense as Leia tested Draco's possible Legilimency skills. The pieces sometimes talked, giving bad advice before smashing the opposite side's pieces.

_So, I should move that rook to F2._

Draco's knight appeared magically in its path.

_My queen should go over there…_

While Draco could read her thoughts, at least some of them, he wasn't very good at hiding the fact that he knew where her queen was going. But if he was 'delving into her mind' then wouldn't he see her suspicion? She left those thoughts to the back of her head and focused on the game.

"Check mate." He said curtly.

He had won, but he didn't seem happy about it.

"Well, let's never do that again." Leia said, sighing.

"Are you too much of a sore loser?"

"I'm too much of a _bored_ loser."

The two snorted. Neither slept well that night.


	19. Chapter 19

Okay, so this is probably my most favorite chapter, and it introduces some themes that will be in Part 3 of the Rebel Girl saga thing I have going on... It is currently in the works, but don't get your hopes up yet, because it will probably take forever. Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I love all you people. *tears* *actual crying* *it's been a long week*

Read, Review...

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Chapter 19

Soundtrack: Hey by The Pixies

The very next morning, Friday, Leia got an owl from her brother. He had only recently started talking to her again and every time she saw his hand writing she got excited. She had missed her twin. She sat at the breakfast table with Astoria and Theo, chewing on toast absent-mindedly as she read her brother's spiky handwriting. The bird that had delivered the letter was tapping its talon impatiently on the wood table.

_Dear Wombmate,_

_You had better be free this Saturday, because it will most likely be the single greatest day of your life. At noon you will be at the Three Broomsticks, promptly at noon, and there you will have a fantastic time with a surprise I am bringing. You should dress sharply and I expect to see Uhura there looking just as smashing._

_Your Brother,_

_Luke_

_PS_

_Oh by the way, did you know Coco Chanel was a Nazi spy? I just learned this and it made our spy game seem all too real. Hope you can sleep at night knowing one of the most important woman in fashion's history worked for Hitler._

_PPS_

_It was really not my intention to make you lose sleep over your hero's unfortunate moments or something._

_PPPS_

_If Coco Chanel is your hero, you could do better._

_PPPPS_

_Did you notice I used the word 'smashing'? God, WE ARE SO BRISTISH NOW!_

Leia chuckled to herself as she looked over the letter. As much as Luke and she had communicated throughout her time at Hogwarts, Luke really has no idea how to write a proper letter. His use of postscript really has just gotten silly.

"And what does your letter say?" Astoria asked curiously, putting her hands on her chin while propping her elbows on the table.

The bird had not left and was probably expecting a response.

"It seems my brother has a surprise for me that he will reveal this Saturday at the Three Broomsticks."

"Don't drink the mead." Theo said under his breath.

"You'd think that'd be worse for business." Leia added.

"Wouldn't you, though?"

Leia shook her head and scribbled her response on some loose paper.

_Oh Dear Luke,_

_I would be ever so lucky to join you tomorrow. I am ever so excited. Do be warned, do not drink the mead there. That's where Slughorn got the mead that poisoned Ron Wesley. We can only hope that the other edible items there are safe to consume._

_Also, your uses of postscripts are a little ridiculous, don't you think? I even knew that Coco Chanel was a Nazi spy. And please, Luke, she would never be my hero. She was on opiates all the time and slept with a married Dali. She was a mess._

_Your Sister,_

_Leia_

_PS_

_Your use of the word 'smashing' doesn't make either one of us British. And this is how you use postscript properly without seeming like a child._

She folded her letter and handed it to the bird that had been waiting for her reply. She nodded to it as the owl took flight.

Leia was looking forward to Saturday. If only it wasn't for the fact she had reason to believe that her 'boyfriend' had been getting into her head, literally. That fact was rather distracting. But she didn't have much time to mule it over because the day ended faster than she had expected. Draco and she were both tired and conversation was light before falling asleep.

"My brother has a surprise for me at the Three Broomsticks tomorrow." She whispered, lying with him on the couch.

"Oh?"

"Yes, I've been told to be there at noon with my kitten and dressed sharply."

"What if he's setting you up?"

"For what?"

"A date?"

Leia looked to Draco with slight surprise. She had not considered this rather unlikely possibility.

"I can assure you that's not what's going to happen. My brother doesn't really like me dating _anyone_."

"So his dissatisfaction towards me isn't personal?"

"Well, I wouldn't go there. He's protective but he's never really been a fan of you, but he's never spoken to you either. He can be quite the elitist."

"So he'd be a Slytherin as well?"

Leia snorted.

"I donno. He's rather the underachiever. He wouldn't get out of bed other than to eat and play guitar if no one made him."

Draco chuckled.

"Hmmm…I'd always wondered."

The next morning Leia wore an outfit that could sort of be described as 'sharp.' She wore a Monki jumper with a pair of white eyes knitted into it, a Topshop blazer, MANGO trousers, and oxfords. All black. She knew her brother would know this was her version of sweatpants, but no one else would. Draco's ever-present necklace was also hid just under the jumper. Her brother might not notice. Or maybe he would. She didn't really care at this point. She carried Uhura in her arms as she walked down alone, wondering what the hell her brother had put together this time.

Leia opened the door of the Three Broomsticks to find her brother talking with some other guy. Her brother was laughing, loudly. Luke's hands were covering part of his face in a weak attempt to hide his enthusiasm. Luke was in all black with his long hair messy, so Leia was slightly relieved he wasn't taking the 'look sharp' thing too seriously. She then looked to the other guy. He was tall. He was taller than Luke, a feat that seemed impossible up until this point. His disproportionately long arms were moving frantically as he told some story. The guy's dirty blonde hair was cut bluntly at his chin, very 1990s. What really set Leia back was his clothing. He was in an impeccably tailored brown tweed suit.

"'Gene?" Leia said louder than she had expected.

The guy turned around. Leia almost dropped her cat.

This _was_ a surprise.

She had forgotten how much she had missed his smile. He was handsome, but not in a traditional sense. He had large, honest, bright brown eyes, the colour of beer bottles. They got a bit larger when they saw Leia. His face had a lot of character, with a funny smile of over-grown teeth and an Eastern European nose. She had missed his face.

In long strides, Eugene Gray walked over to Leia smiling. He stopped when he was a foot from her.

"Let me look at you." He said looking her up and down. Normally she'd feel insecure when people would do this to her. This time she didn't.

After a moment he cupped her face for a moment and then hugged her. She could feel him smelling her hair for a moment, but she didn't mind. His movements were tender, but they didn't make her uncomfortable.

"It's been too long, Le'." He said. She had forgotten he had called her that. He pronounced her name like the word "lay." A word she had only dreamt about. It didn't seem like a real word, but it felt like her name.

He then down at her cat that nearly blended in with her outfit.

"And is this Uhura?" He asked about the five-month-old cat.

"It is."

The cat took to him well. She could feel tears welding up in her eyes as she looked at her old best friend.

"You are not crying right now." He commanded of her with a laugh in his voice.

"I missed you, ass-hole!" She said now laughing.

"If you start crying, then I will start crying, and then Luke will start crying, and then Uhura will start crying, and everyone will think we're stupid. And it will be all your fault."

She rolled her eyes.

"It's not my fault you just waltzed in her unannounced. You can't expect me not to have emotions!"

"Sit down before you embarrass all of us."

She walked down to where her brother was, hugged her brother as he took her cat. Luke was silent, but smiled bigger than she had seen in a long time.

"So why are you here?" She said to her old friend.

He laughed.

"Well, its spring break back in America-land and my family took a trip to London, so I insisted on visiting the Allens. And it was quite a trek to get here to Hogsmead."

Luke nodded.

"Yeah," Leia's brother explained, "We had to go to Diagon Ally to the bank and get wizard money. They all looked at us like we didn't know magic. It was very insulting to be scoffed at by some trolls."

"They're goblins, but I've never been." Leia responded.

"Where'd you get your gallions and shit?" Luke asked, slightly angered.

"Dad."

"What? He has wizard money? He could have told me that…" He grumbled. He was probably thinking about the first time he came to visit without any wizard money when he had to rely on the kindness of strangers.

"Anyway… 'Gene, how _are_ you? It's been what, a year and then some?" She looked at Eugene and caught him staring at her.

"I'm fine, I guess." Leia looked at him with concern. After a moment he explained. "You know at St. Charles, this is the year they make you decide what you'll be doing for the rest of your life. Well, I told them I wanted to be a writer and they told me that, no, with my math skills I should be in finance. My parents, regrettably, have agreed with the school… And Marcy has made new friends, so it's been just Tom and me."

"You make it sound like you and Tom got married when we were gone." Luke said playfully.

"If we did I am a terrible husband. And a terrible homosexual." Eugene replied smiling.

"What does that mean?" Leia asked, curious.

"I've had quite the list of girlfriends since you two left. It would seem that you two were really the things holding me back, so feel guilty." Eugene said pointing at the two siblings.

"Tell us the juice. Juice, juice, juice, juice, juice!" Leia started chanting. Only after Luke joined in did Eugene hold up a hand for silence.

"Well, if you two must know… The total number is thirteen."

"Thirteen what?" Luke asked.

"Thirteen girls I've dated. None for over a month at a time, but I'm quite popular now."

"Bullshit! Where do you find these women?" Leia said laughing.

"I'm not fucking with you guys! And I go around the Central West End back in Saint Louis and they're climbing all over me." the blonde gentleman said enthusiastically, "As hard as it might be to believe, many women find me to be quite a catch."

"Bullshit!" Luke said loudly.

"I'm telling the truth!"

"The real question is, how many of those have you slept with?" Leia said, raising an eyebrow.

"Eight." He said smiling a little.

"You slut!" Leia replied in surprise.

"You are a slut, Eugene." Luke agreed, "I hope you get regular check-ups. You probably have every STD by now."

"I am in the doctor's office nearly every month, sometimes more. I use condoms every time. I'm clean."

"But you're still a dirty slut." Leia clarified.

"I am the dirtiest of the sluts." Eugene said smirking at Leia with an odd look in his eyes. " So, Le'. Tell me about this _Ocard Yoflam_ fellow."

"Who?"

"I was told I should not say his name frontwards, but backwards would be fine."

Leia looked at her brother in confusion.

_Ocard Yoflam is not a real name._

"Give her a second." Luke said smiling.

_Oh._

_Draco Malfoy backwards. Clever idiot. I probably shouldn't be telling him this, but who would he tell?_

"Oh." Leia said laughing. "He's a pretty fantastic person. We just seem to really understand each other. I-I like him a lot…"

"But?" Eugene said sensing her regrets.

"It hasn't been perfectly smooth lately."

"Oh?" Luke and Eugene said at the same time.

"Yeah…" Leia spoke quieter. "Have either of you heard of Legilimency?"

Eugene's eyes widened. Luke looked confused.

"You really shouldn't be diving into someone's head like that. It's immoral, and I'm sure you really don't want to know about Ocard's secret masturbation habits." Eugene whispered like it was common knowledge.

"What?" Luke said, lost.

"Legilimency is a magical skill where certain wizards can dive into anyone's thoughts, memories… you name it. It's very difficult, but they teach it at St. Charles your sophomore year." Eugene explained.

"You just said it was immoral." Luke said confused.

"Well, they only teach it so you can know if someone is on to your magical skills. They have strict barriers. I'm awful at it. I can only sort of read someone's current thoughts as long as they're like mentally screaming. Do they teach that at Hogwarts?"

Leia was a little dumbstruck.

"No, they do not. But I'm not the one using it anyway."

"Oh, you think Ocard is… well that's very different."

"Yeah, but I don't know if he knows that I suspect something. But sometimes I know he's lying about whatever and if he can get into my head then he'd know that I think he's lying, but he does nothing about it. But another part of me thinks I'm just paranoid, I mean there have been moments where Legilimency is a reasonable explanation."

"Like?" Eugene questioned.

"Yeah, like he sometimes just looks at me hard and then his emotion totally changes… and this one time he just looked at me and then jumped to all of these crazy conclusions, that were true, but things that he wouldn't have just guessed. It felt like he looked into my head and saw the full story before I told him anything." She said thinking of the Christmas Party. She looked down at her hands to avoid eye contact. Eugene thought for a moment.

"I would break up with him." Eugene said flatly. "From what I've heard of him, he's not on the noble side of things and now this…"

Leia felt someone looking at her and turned to find Draco, sitting at a table with Blaise and Pansy, looking at her intently. His glare was painful. Leia gulped and the men at the table followed her line of vision and saw what she saw.

"The blonde kid?" Eugene asked in an even tone.

"Yup." Luke said in the same voice.

She looked up to Eugene and Luke to find an equally painful stare at 'the blonde kid.'

"God, if looks could kill! Stop looking at him like that!" Leia said waving her hands in front of the two boy's faces. Eugene was silent for a moment and then smiled a little.

"He's very jealous." Eugene said looking to Leia.

"Should he be?"

"Only you can answer that question."

Leia blushed. Eugene was becoming a bit too intimate.

"You two haven't even spoken to him." Leia said annoyed.

"Well I get the appeal, I guess." Eugene said, pausing to sip on his coffee for a moment. "He's an attractive fellow, objectively."

"Yeah, and he's got that 'bad-boy' attitude." Luke added.

Leia snorted.

"Isn't that code for 'asshole' attitude?" Eugene questioned Luke.

"Yes." Leia answered under her breath.

The boys both laughed in surprise.

"What? I'm kind of an asshole too, so we get along well." She explained shamelessly.

"He looks like he'd be good in the sack." Eugene said evenly.

"I think Eugene wants to get a piece of Ocard." Luke said to Leia smiling.

Eugene made a face.

"I have a feeling we'd argue the whole time on who's on top and never get anything done."

Leia giggled loudly.

"That is exactly what would happen." She agreed.

"It would probably end with me saying something like, 'Well I've heard you're going to end up in prison anyway, so you'd better get used to this.' And he'd be like, 'You went too far with that one, _sir_. Too soon! You'll never get this piece of ass.' And then leave the hotel room."

Leia covered her face in laughter. Luke was laughing as well.

"Hotel room?" Luke questioned.

"Well I'm not bringing that into my house, and I don't want to find out where he lives, and I have a feeling he'd never go into a motel."

"That's oddly accurate." Leia said in between laughter.

While laughing, something budged their table. It was the devil they were just speaking of. She hadn't noticed him getting up, but he and his friends were leaving and had to pass by their table to get to the door. Draco stopped in his tracks and assessed the table.

"What is this, a business meeting?" Draco said curtly while looking at Eugene's attire. Leia hoped that this was in secret jest.

"What are you, a donkey vagina?" Leia spat back.

"You'd be the expert on that, wouldn't you?" Draco responded with a tiny smirk.

"You look like a donkey vagina expert, Le'. It's in the eyes." Eugene agreed. Leia looked to Eugene in surprise. Draco frowned a little more at the nickname.

"'Gene! You don't know anything about my donkey vagina expertise, or lack thereof."

"Did she just say donkey vagina?" Pansy Parkinson asked to Draco for clarification, who wasn't listening to the conversation until just then.

"No, she said 'I'm Leia Allen the ass-waffle.'" Draco said with a straight face.

There was a moment of silence from all of them while Pansy looked at Draco intently.

"You're all idiots." Pansy said with a look of pity and walked past Draco while rolling her eyes. Blaise promptly followed her. Draco gave Leia a sneer-type face that ended up looking silly and walked out after Pansy.

"He seems nice." Luke said sarcastically.

"It's how we joke… and stomp out any rumors." Leia ended quietly.

"Please, you were smiling the whole time." Eugene said rolling his eyes. "No wonder rumors are starting. You were like two kittens in a play fight. You might as well have called him 'sweetie.'"

"Ugh" Leia said making a face. "Never."

"You're too much of a feminist for pet names." Eugene observed. "I imagine calling you 'doll-face' wouldn't go over well."

"Unless you call a punch in the face 'going over well.'" Leia replied.

"You punched Ocard in the face on the first day you met him." Luke reminded her.

"Leia!" Eugene said slightly horrified.

"Well, he slapped me first." She clarified.

"What. He slapped you and you're _fucking_ him?" Eugene said in a dark voice. Leia thought for a second he was going to run out and try to start a fight with Draco.

"No, no, that was long before any of that. That was like a long time ago and he was being a little bitch. I know him much better now."

"Why didn't you stop this earlier?" Eugene said to Luke, very angered at this point. "How the fuck can you be with someone who _hit a girl_?" He said turning to Leia.

"I was never in favor of their relationship." Luke said coldly.

"'Gene, you don't understand-"

"_You_ don't understand. I don't care how fucking _charming_ he is. I know about his father. He's the son of a Death Eater. He hit you the first day he met you. If he did it once without even knowing you, what makes you think he won't do it again?"

Eugene was really worked up.

"How fucking _stupid_ do you think I am? Do you really think I'd put myself in that type of relationship? You don't trust my judgment, do you?" Leia said sadly. Eugene looked away for a moment.

"I didn't think Tom's mom was stupid." He replied quietly, speaking of their old friend's deceased mother.

"What?" Leia said stunned.

"You two really don't know?" Eugene said looking from Luke to Leia's shocked faces. "Tom's mom committed suicide by smashing her car into a building. Tom's father was physically abusing her for years. Tom's dad is in prison now with domestic abuse charges. Tom is living with his Aunt and Uncle now. You two didn't read any of our letters, did you?"

Leia looked at Luke to see he was just as surprised as she was.

"We never got any letters." Luke explained.

"We wrote to both of you, all three of us, for months. You said you'd call us once you got there, but we never heard anything. Just to talk to you I had to urge my parents to take me to London and bang down your door." Eugene said in a sad tone.

"I tried to call, we both did. Your numbers never worked. We always got a busy signal or error. And we sent letters, many letters." Leia said looking to Luke for clarification.

"Mom told me maybe they didn't have international calling or something and to wait for your letters. Then she told me to move on and make new friends here." Luke whispered.

"What if she-" Leia started, but then stopped herself.

"No, she wouldn't." Luke said immediately. He looked down at his watch for a way out. He found it. "Our train back leaves in ten minutes anyway."

"You're leaving? Already?" Leia said gloomily.

"There was no late afternoon train today." Luke explained.

"We best be going." Eugene said with a melancholy voice while standing. Luke stood up with him and left money on the table.

"I'll walk you there." Leia said while getting up and grabbing her cat.

The three walked to the station in silence. When they arrived they still had seven minutes. Luke said his goodbye swiftly and left Eugene and Leia alone for a moment.

"'Gene, I'm so glad you came." Leia said with a forlorn smile. Eugene held her face for a moment.

"Make me a promise, Le', won't you?" He started, that Leia gave a hesitant nod to. "Don't be with him unless you're in love with him."

Leia looked bewildered.

"So those thirteen girls, were you in love with them?"

Eugene answered with an unhappy smile.

"I was only with them because they looked like you."

Leia didn't know how to respond. Her mouth dropped a little in surprise. His face was so close to hers. He was cradling her face. She could feel his body heat. She wanted to kiss him so badly, it hurt. After she didn't say anything for a moment, he dropped his hands and took a step back.

"Goodbye, Le'."

He turned and started walking toward the platform. Leia could feel her heart shattering. Just as he was steps away from the platform, she ran to him. She turned his face to her. He instinctively grabbed her around the waist as she got on her tip toes.

She kissed him hard and held on to his face like he was dying.

She knew it was wrong. She knew Draco would find out about it. She didn't care. She didn't know when she'd see Eugene again and couldn't let him leave. She had forgotten how deep her feelings for him were, and they were able to all come flooding back to her the moment she saw him.

In what seemed like the both longest and shortest kiss of her life, they broke apart to breathe with their noses touching. Eugene let go of her waist and Leia's feet went flatly to the ground.

"Try not to think about me with your boyfriend around." He whispered to her before walking away. The train was just pulling in and she watched as her brother and her old friend boarded the train. Eugene saw her out of the window and gave her a knowing look before the train started moving.

_Draco's going to kill me._


	20. Chapter 20

Small but important chapter! Read, review, ect.

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Chapter 20

Our Deal by Best Coast

Leia stood at the top of the stairway that led the girl's dormitories to the Slytherin common room. She hesitated. She knew the moment he saw her he'd know everything. The only good thing that would come out of it was that she could prove if he was getting in her head or not. Uhura gave her away by running down the steps. She sighed and walked down.

_Better get it over with._

"Hey." She said apologetically as she sat next to Draco, who was reading. He closed his book.

"Pansy wouldn't shut up about ass waffles and donkey vaginas. She thinks we're stupid."

"She's probably right." She replied rolling her eyes.

"How was your friend?" he asked lightly.

"Eugene is fine. It was good to see him. He's quite a strapping young fellow now."

Draco furrowed his brow.

"You called him 'Gene' earlier today… I even overheard your brother speaking to him before you walked in and he addressed him as Eugene."

"I always tried to get that nickname going but no one else would call him 'Gene… I just never gave up the habit."

"And he called you Le'."

"For the same reason. I had forgotten he called me that."

They sat in silence for a moment. She swallowed deeply.

"I'm jealous." Draco said flatly.

"What?" Leia never thought he'd admit it.

"I'm really jealous, actually… the way he looked at you. If I could have I would have killed him for the way he stared at you."

Leia laughed shortly, but then realized what Draco was saying. She shook her head and didn't reply.

"It'd be easier to be with him. Your bother likes him, he could hold your hand in public, and I'm sure he's already met your parents. And I bet you'd tell him how you actually feel." He said quietly. Leia didn't like the way this conversation was going.

"You say that like it's my fault."

"It's not, but how am I supposed to know if this is worth it if you won't tell me anything?"

_By reading my thoughts, asshole._

Draco seemed to flinch a little at Leia's thought.

"You know the answer to that question, Draco."

He leaned over to put his face in his hands and elbows on his knees.

"He's in love with you Leia. I can tell it's written all over his face."

Leia supposed that might have been true.

"I know he does." She said quietly.

"And you told him about us? He gave me the death glare alongside your brother."

"My brother told him. It's not like he has anyone to tell who could hurt either of us."

Draco shook his head and looked at her harshly.

"I'm not doing this in secret for my reputation. It's to protect you. There are certain people who would hurt you if they found out."

"Draco, my brother might as well have told a muggle, Eugene has no influence on European magic-"

"Fine." He said cutting her off.

"It's not like I want it to be this way."

"Don't you? I think this agreement we have gives you a reason not to face your feelings."

_Touché._

"Well you obviously have the upper hand in this situation."

"Really? That's what you think? _I'm_ the dominate person in this relationship? I'd do anything for you, like put up with you."

"Well, at least being with you is such a walk in the park. It's not like I have to worry about mood swings, or violent jealousy, or Death Eater connections, or anything like that."

_Or Legilimency._

"And passive-aggressive comments always work out."

Leia didn't reply for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated. Today has been weird. I learned a lot of things about people I thought I knew so well."

Leia sighed.

"Like what?"

"If you really want to know, it turns out that my good friend Tom's mother died of suicide instead of the car crash, like we were told. It turns out that Tom's father had been physically abusing both of them for years. Tom's father is now in prison, something that neither of us knew. We didn't know because we never got the letters Eugene and our friends from home had been sending us. We had actually tried to call them, over and over again and the calls never went through. We even sent letters to them that never got delivered. It's like someone had been making sure Luke and I lost contact with our old friends. I'm probably just paranoid, but I think Luke is worried too."

Saying those words out loud didn't make her feel any better.

"Why would someone do that?"

"I have no idea, but Luke was talking about how Mom was always telling him to just move on, and she said the same thing to me. And we were never told why we had to leave the states so abruptly, but it always seemed to be my mom's doing. It never made sense."

Draco thought about it for a moment and then spoke facing her.

"I have no idea what any of that means, but I'm rather tired from all of the energy that I put into being jealous today and I need sleep."

And so they slept, uneasy about what would happen tomorrow.


	21. Chapter 21

What? TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY?! AGAIN? Well, just don't get used to it. Read, review, ect.

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Chapter 21

Regret by Fiona Apple

Ever since Leia's little spurt with Draco in potions, she gained her re-entry into Harry and friend's inner circle. They actually included her in conversations that had nothing to do with Draco Malfoy! She talked with Ron about food, Ginny about charms, Harry about muggle culture and even Hermione about reading and cats. She used to think she they were only similar through a common enemy. But she was gladly wrong, for a month and a half at least. Oh, but what a glorious six weeks it was! The seventh week was looking just as promising, until Harry broke his face and house elves ruined everything.

Leia sat in the hospital wing with all the others, putting the situation together with bits and pieces of information because everyone was talking at once.  
She almost regretted opting out of Quidditch to spend time with Draco in the Room of Requirement.  
Almost.

"...well, I wasn't quite well enough to play, so McLaggin was playing..."  
"...Luna, who let you commentate? I was so confused..."  
"...and then Harry was right on the snitch, but..."  
"…Quidditch really is a vile sport, I mean, look at Harry! I don't get the appeal..."  
"...Then McLaggin almost busted Harry's brains out with a beater's bat!"  
After all that listening, the last comment summed it up for her. She walked over to Madam Pomfrey to ask how bad Harry was. Pomfrey saw her coming.  
"Ah, Miss Allen, so I guess you've seen Mr. Potter's condition."  
"How bad?"  
"The bat broke his skull. From what I can tell there is no brain damage, but really only time will tell. The break will be fixed, though. He should be out by tomorrow."  
"Oh, okay, great." Leia said taking a step back and mentally planning to go talk to her new friends again.  
"Oh, if you'll give him some Calming Draught so he'll sleep and all of his friends will leave. But don't say that. Say it's for his head."  
"Oh, okay..."  
_Was this breaking a moral code to lie to a patient? Probably, but Pomfrey did have to deal with sick teenagers all the time, so it was worth it... Most likely._

"It's for your head." Leia said like it was the truth.  
"Why isn't Madam Pomfrey giving this to me?"  
"She's a really busy person and I'm a healing student."  
"Oh okay."  
Harry drank it after Leia poured some into a cup for him. He immediately calmed down, and asked if his friends leave so he could sleep. It worked perfectly. As Leia walked out, Pomfrey called her over.  
"Allen, if you could spare the time, I could always use another set of hands around here. I'd give you extra credit."  
"Uh, sure. What time is best?"  
"I really will need help after Qudditch games, but really any time."  
"Sounds great, I have a paper to write now, but I think I can drop by tomorrow."  
"Great."  
Leia enjoyed Healing. It made her brain think in new ways and distracted her from her own troubles. Madam Pomfrey was nice, but stern and blunt. Her humor was dry though she rarely laughed.

For the next week, Leia went off to help heal bones, burns, and scratches. It was very different from the book work in class, but that made it more exciting.  
She was walking back to the Slytherin common room after being in the hospital wing all afternoon when she saw Harry looking angry and determined. He stopped her when she was almost past him by grabbing her arm.  
"Leia, I need to talk to you." He growled while pulling her into an empty classroom.  
"Uh, okay..." she said a little concerned before standing right in front of him inside an old potions classroom.

"When I was in the hospital I had two house elves following Malfoy to see what he is up to." Harry started. He kept taking deep breaths to keep calm. Leia's heart started pounding faster.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck._

"And it turns out that he has been visiting the Room of Requirement quite frequently, and sometimes even without you." He said with an angry smirk on his face. "So, if you'd like to share what you and Malfoy have been doing together, I'd love to know if it's something more than just shagging."

Leia felt a little faint and avoided Harry's eyes.

_It was more than 'just shagging.'_

"What do you want me to tell you, Harry? Do you honestly believe that I would be seeing the child of a Death Eater for 'just shagging'? Do you think he would spend all this time with the daughter of a mudblood and a squib for 'just shagging'? Or do you think I'm trying to help him bring down the wizarding world? Do you think he's turned me into a Death Eater now? Harry, how poorly do you think of me?"

"I have no idea what to think anymore."

"You don't get it do you? We're not stupid… we might be fools, but we're not stupid. We wouldn't be doing this, we wouldn't be risking all of this, for 'just shagging.' I-"

Leia cut herself off when she choked on a small sob. She felt angry burning tears emit from her eyes and sting her skin as they rolled down her face.

"You can't tell me you _love_ him?" He asked almost sarcastically with a disgusted look on his face. Leia felt her heart sink to the pit of her stomach. She looked at Harry in the eye and swallowed before speaking.

"I don't know anymore."

He looked at her hard. His eyes seemed to be searching to the answer to some question Leia was glad he didn't ask. He sighed again.

"He goes to the Room of Requirement many times a day, but according to my sources, half of the time he's there alone." He spoke clearly and calmly, almost like a layer. "Do you have any idea what he could be doing there alone?"

Leia took in this information.

"I have no idea."

Those words hurt, more than Harry thinking she was a whore or a trader. She felt like she hardly knew Draco at all… somehow she knew everything about him but nothing that actually mattered. Harry sighed in frustrated anger. She wondered if he thought she was lying. She wished she was.

If only she could lie about that.

"Goodbye Leia." He spat as he turned his head and started to stomp out the room.

"Before you go, tell me, did you actually want me to come back this year for the Order's benefit or so you could get more dirt on Malfoy?"

"A mixture of both."

"Great. And we were never friends, were we?"

"You had your moments, but definitely not now."

Harry turned and fully walked out of the room.

Leia pushed away her tears and tried to get her breathing back to normal. She knew what she was morally obligated to do, for all parties involved.

_I hate morals._

Leia met Draco as she normally did, in pajamas, in the common room, on a leather couch, and at an unreasonable hour. Only this time, Leia knew, would be their last. Her Donna Karan sleepwear didn't feel comfortable. The couch felt scratchy and fake all the sudden. Leia moved awkwardly shifting her weight from side to side while sitting next to him, the man she hardly knew.

He looked at her like he already knew what she was going to say.

"Potter knows." She whispered.

"About what?" he said casually.

Leia rolled her eyes.

"About us. He had some house elves following you around and they noticed we had been making trips to the Room of Requirement. He put the pieces together."

"Has he told anyone?"

"I don't know, but I doubt it though. I imagine he'll save it when he needs something from me… or you."

"Leverage?"

"Yeah."

She swallowed at the silence between them. She felt like she was sitting with a stranger.

"He also mentioned that you've been taking trips to the Room of Requirement alone."

"There are some things…" he said speaking to a chair so he wouldn't have to look at her, "that I cannot tell you, even if I wanted to. It would make you unsafe… you'd be an accomplice."

_Accomplice?_

"I thought I knew you so well, Draco."

He paused.

"You do, actually. You know who I really am."

"Draco, when you help them you're not becoming someone else. You'll never be able to run away from those actions. There is no real you because there is no fake you, there is only you. You doing God knows what for you-know-who is the same person who fucking snuggles with me at night."

"If I told you the truth you'd hate me."

"Then why have we been doing this? If I really would hate the person who you really are, then why have you been letting me come here every night?"

"Because I can't sleep without you…"

"Draco, who trained you in Legilimency?" Leia said apubtly changing the subject.

"What?"

"You know. I noticed it the when we were playing chess… You knew every move before I played it. It wasn't the first time I've felt like you've been inside my head. Blaise Zambini situation at the Christmas party, remember that? Remember how you knew he tried something on me and how you gave that bullshit excuses? Did you read my mind then? Could you read that I knew you were lying to me?"

Tears started fall from Draco.

"Yes." He said quietly.

Leia stood up and started walking over to her dorm.

"Leia you don't get it! I had to-"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD." She shouted at him.

She had prepared a silencing spell because she knew this was going to happen. He shut his mouth, obviously hurt by her harshness. Leia kept walking back to her actual bed that she had spent very little time in this year. When she reached her bed, the mattress felt odd. She really only spent time in it waiting for the other girls to fall asleep or wake up. Actually sleeping in it was a foreign concept. She didn't see herself getting much sleep tonight. And she didn't.


	22. Chapter 22

Hey, thanks for all of the fantastic reviews. I'm pretty excited about this chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it.

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Chapter 22

Every Single Night by Fiona Apple (And if you only bother to listen to one song this saga, make it this one)

Sleep deprivation has many physical effects, some are: muscle pain, confusion, memory loss, depression, headaches, 'bags under eyes,' and loss of sex drive. Leia of course, experienced all of those symptoms. Her back hurt, school was harder than normal, everything sucked, headaches attacked at the most inconvenient moments, her normal make-up routine was not prepared for her under eye circles, and her libido was non-existent.

Within a few weeks she felt as if she knew the night very well. She knew every hour, every minute that ticked away. Night is a long ass time for anyone just to be lying down and mentally screaming at themselves to "GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP." However, the night and she were not friends. Their relationship was closer to that of a probation officer and some teenage punk who got caught shoplifting and has to check in with some old lady once a month. Like that, only Leia had to go through it every fucking night. She imagined that the night was an actual person and she would have angry imaginary conversations with it.

"You're a piece of shit." Leia would mentally spit at her fantasized personification.

"Don't get mad at me because your failed relationship with Death Eater Rookie of the Year." The night would say back sassily.

The night was pretty witty.

"I'll get mad at you whenever I want because this is my imagination and you're not a real thing."

"I don't know why you feel so superior to me in an imaginary conversation."

"Touché."

"But really, it's not my fault you suck at sleeping."

"This not-day this is taking forever though. I can't be the only one who complains about that."

"Oh yeah, we have a complaint box full of shit like that. You can fill out this sheet and we'll get back to you as soon as possible."

"Really?"

"No, Leia, you stupid hoe this isn't real."

"Gimmy a fucking break!"

Their conversations would go on like this until 'the night' got too mean with its insults and Leia thought about something else for the remaining hours until breakfast. She might have slept about two hours a night, but she never could remember falling asleep or waking up.

With all of the awfulness of night, the day really wasn't much better. Harry 'n' Friends ignored her, her grades were slipping, she all of the sudden had all of this free time that she had no idea what to do with, Theo and Astoria seemed to be growing distant, and the physical effects of insomnia was the cherry on top of a fantastically shitty day! She'd argue with the day too.

"Well, Leia, I'm glad to see that you tried your hardest at that potions test regardless of the grade! Because, really that's all you can do in anything, is try your best!"

"Fuck off, _day_."

These conversations didn't last long.

Really, the only redeeming quality of the day was that she got to see how miserable Draco Malfoy looked. His skin lacked the normal perfection that Leia was used to. He actually broke out. She figured it could either be from stress, lack of sleep, or all of the junk food she imagined that he ate. Leia pictured him in his bed watching the Notebook while crying, with a bucket of Ben and Jerry's. That wasn't true, but then again she was having imaginary conversations in her spare time. His under-eye bags were worse than Leia's. He looked flat out depressed. And that totally made Leia's day to know that he was getting along slightly worse than she was.

In an attempt to fill up some of her spare time, she went out and smoked a cigarette, a habit that was less and less frequent with Draco, but was now back again. She sat in bench in the courtyard watching smoke fill the air. After a while, Theo entered the courtyard and sat down next to her.

"So." He said looking straight ahead.

"How much do you know?"

"I know that you cut things off with Draco because Potter found out, I know that neither of you are sleeping at night, and I know that you are both still in love with each other."

"Well then, Mr. Smarty-pants." Leia said in a mocking tone.

"What I don't know is why."

"Why what?"

"Why Potter's opinion of you is more important than sleep."

Leia was quiet for a moment.

"It's not just his opinion of me, what we were doing was really stupid and reckless and morally wrong-"

"We both know that neither of you have any moral authority."

"It wasn't _just_ Potter finding out about our relationship."

"Oh?"

Leia paused and sniffed for a moment. She really didn't want to get into this.

"Potter also mentioned that Draco has been making secret trips to the Room of Requirement, alone."

"What do you think he was doing?"

"That's just it, I have no idea. That's the issue. We both have very big secrets that we can't tell each other. And he mentioned that I would hate him if I found out his."

"What else did he say?"

"That it was for my safety that he didn't drag me into this. He said if I found out what he's doing it would make me an accomplice. If that's not a red flag then I don't know what is. I'm sure you already know what he's up to."

"No, actually, I don't."

She looked at her friend in surprise. She was certain that Theo already had this all figured out or that Draco had told him. His brow was furrowed in frustration. He frowned.

"He's been very secretive about his 'project.' I bet he already assumes that it's not going to work out. If he thought he was going to succeed he'd be bragging about it."

"Project?" Leia asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Assignment, whatever… he's been working on something all year."

"He was reading about repairing magical antiques. Not just reading, but annotating. He said he was working on something."

"When was this?"

"When we first started…" her voice faded.

"You both are worse apart than you are together, and that's saying something." He started as Leia stomped out her cigarette. "I think the relationship was a terrible idea, but in the long run you're better off with him then you are without him. But he's much worse without you."

"I've noticed." Leia said with a little smirk. "It makes me feel like I'm winning."

"I've never seen Draco's skin get worse after a break-up."

"You noticed it too?"

"I mean, it's not _that_ bad, but for Draco it's the end of the world."

She snorted and then paused as she considered saying her next sentence out loud. She figured by now Theo would already know.

"Someone trained him in Legilimency."

"_What_?"

"He's alright at it too. I don't know who trained him… I'm guessing Snape, but fuck if I know anything."

Theo stood up abruptly.

"I have to go, but you should know he still waits for you in the common room every night." He said without looking back at Leia. He made long strides to the nearest entrance. Leia was left alone, again.


	23. Chapter 23

I'm glad all of the reviews have been so positive! Ugh, you guys are the best. Enjoy this next chapter. (Psst, there are only four chapters left!) And then tell me how much you love it or hate it or whatever.

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Chapter 23

Oblivion by Grimes

Leia mentally groaned at what she was about to do. She stood at the top of the stairs, once again. It was two days since Theo and she had talked on the bench and she was getting desperate. Those two days had been spent thinking about which addiction she'd rather have: sleeping potion or Draco Malfoy. Neither one seemed very appealing. She knew if she took sleeping potion that she'd have to keep on taking it until her sleep schedule got back to normal, and by that time she'd have formed a habit and possibly a high tolerance. Then she'd have to start taking more and more sleeping potion to get the same desired effect, and she wasn't interested in that. Draco Malfoy was pretty much the same thing, only she didn't have to go to Madam Pomfrey to get her supply. She also doubted that sleeping potion would like her back as much as Draco did.

Leia sighed and took a step. And then another. She paused. Shook her head and took a few more.

_This is a bad idea._

She went step in the opposite direction, but then two more forward. She rolled her eyes at herself and took the rest of the steps. She knew she would have at some point.

And there on the couch, as promised, sat her drug of choice.

_Mother Fucker._

He wasn't reading a book this time, instead he was writing something in a journal. She didn't know he had kept a journal. He didn't notice her yet, so she took a moment to let herself hesitate.

_I would give my first unborn child for that Diary._

She kept walking towards him, and he didn't notice until she was right in front of him. He looked at her without any emotion in his eyes.

"An unborn child is a little much for a diary don't you think?" He said evenly.

_Well, then._

"This is not at all what I was expecting. I thought you'd have your tongue down my throat and your hands down my pants by now."

"Is that what you were wanting?"

"Not particularly. I'm too tired and cranky to want to try anything. Maybe after some sleep."

"Good, because I've had to wank off a lot to make up for you and I'm just tired now."

She sat down next to him.

"I didn't need to know that."

"Well, there are a lot of things that I don't need to know about a lot of people but have been forced to see… Legilimency is as awful as it is brilliant."

"Spill. I want to know the weird things you've found out about other people."

"Granger has masturbated about me and you and us on many accounts, Weaslebee gets the shits like it's nobody's business, Blaise is so _much_ more racist about blood purity than anyone thought, your brother, Luke, couldn't get fucking his ex-girlfriend out of his head while he was with you at the Three Broomsticks, Dean Thomas is sensitive about the massive size of his cock, Longbottom is a horny bastard, as in worse than normal, and Lavender Brown is a freak. Like, fetishes that I didn't know existed, like balloon fetishes."

Leia laughed rather loudly. She hadn't laughed in a while.

"Okay, so some those things cannot be true. Like, Granger hates you, Blaise is obviously a huge bigot, and no one has a balloon fetish."

"I'm not kidding. Granger played with herself while imagining me fucking her in the library, you fucking her in the library, us fucking her in the library... She's got a big library thing. Blaise has had violent fantasies about murdering muggle borns, they're disturbing and I only hang out with him to make sure he doesn't stab Colin Creevey repeatedly in the neck. And the fetish is to have balloons inbetween the two people and when the balloon pops they climax. People are disgusting."

She looked at him right in the eyes while he spoke.

"You're not lying."

"I'm not. And I suppose you already know that Eugene has been dating all those girls he meets because you kind of look like them. They're not nearly as attractive as you are and he knows it. He really wanted to take you back to St. Louis when he came to visit, but he knew he couldn't. And Ginny Wesley has weird period stuff that you don't want to know about."

"You sound like you're kind of enjoying yourself."

"It becomes addictive. I don't even concentrate in class anymore because I'm too busy looking into why Kevin Entwhistle's favorite book is _To Kill a Mockingbird_. He finds there to be deep symbolism and see's the trial as a metaphor for his parent's relationship… It's _fun_ in a way."

Leia laughed.

"I'd probably enjoy it too. So you know everything about me now?"

"No, I never dove very deep with you… only what you were thinking about at that moment. I don't care to know what you did with a tampon in your fourth year, and to clarify that was a Ginny Wesley reference and had nothing to do with you. Really, the only time I looked into your memories was so see what really happened that night when you had just gotten yourself out of Umbridge's detention and you came back looking like hell… I had always worried about that night."

"Oh that night…" Leia said sighing. She had tried to forget about that.

"Lovegood still feels bad about it, she thinks of about it every time she sees you and she's really guilty about it. But she's terrified to apologize to you because she doesn't want you to have to relive the whole thing. But bloody hell, she left you in a forest."

Leia sighed.

"Okay, one last secret you've learned and then we fall asleep."

"Potter grew up with his Aunt and Uncle, who are terrible people. His bedroom, where he spent most of his time, was a cupboard under some stairs until he was eleven. And Dumbledore left him there, in that house. And Dumbledore knew about the stairs business because Harry's Hogwarts letter was addressed to 'the cupboard under some stairs.' So Dumbledore willingly let Harry live in an abusive house. Harry hasn't even realized just what Dumbledore has put him through, like he doesn't understand how awful it is to let a child live in an abusive household. It's fucked."

Leia didn't know any of this information, and was surprised, but too tired to dive into it.

"You called him by his first name"

"No I didn't." He said blushing for a moment. "Shit, I did. I guess once you read into the majority of his childhood memories, you become on a first-name basis."

Leia almost smiled. She had a feeling she should be disgusted by all of this, but she was probably too exhausted to have better judgment.

"Sleep. Now." She said before forcing Draco to be horizontal.

They didn't speak for the rest of the night, or even early that morning. They left silently and avoided eye contact while in the daylight. It never ceased to amaze her just how much a good night's sleep affected her. She felt so much better, physically. Mentally, she still hated herself for going back to him. Theo was right, however, they were better together than they were apart.


	24. Chapter 24

Hey, sorry I didn't update for a while! I've been busy, but here we are. It's the beginning of the end folks. Read, review, enjoy.

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Chapter 24

It was one of the few times in her life where Leia could describe her mood as 'chipper.' She had been sleeping well for the last few weeks and it had done her very well. She felt rested, and cheery for no particular reason. They only had a handful of days left in the school year, and Leia was ready to get this year over with. She now sat across from Astoria and Theo who were wordlessly eating their supper. Leia was chewing when she noticed the room seemed to get slightly quieter. She looked up to find a small group of people around some student.

"What is that all about?" She asked her friends in a tone slightly above a whisper.

"I heard Katie Bell is supposed to be back today." Astoria said without looking behind her to see the group of people.

"Yeah, it's her." Theo said stretching his neck slightly for a better view.

_Oh, right. I remember her being a person._

Leia saw her. Katie looked better, maybe a little overwhelmed at the moment, but healthy. After a few minutes the crowd disappeared and Katie was walking down the Great Hall alone to reach her friends on the far side of the Gryffindor table. She was stopped in her path.

Harry Potter had stood in her way and was obviously asking her questions. Leia was far out of earshot, but by the look on Harry's face, he hadn't gotten the answer he was looking for. At that moment, Draco Malfoy was just entering the hall. Draco made eye contact with Katie and froze. Both Katie and Draco shared the same expression of a deer in headlights. They both started to look pale and sick. Harry saw their mirrored reactions to one another and started marching towards Draco. Draco shook his head to snap out of it and exited the hall swiftly. Harry followed him.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck._

Leia set down her fork and stood up abruptly. Her neighbors looked confused and she quickly murmured something about having to leave for something. She took large steps out of the Hall, and then pulled out her wand while making large strides towards Harry.

Harry saw her, but didn't react other than to hold a finger to his mouth to signal silence. Harry and Leia followed Draco quietly, to a bathroom on the other side of the castle, one that Leia had never been to before. Draco went right inside.

_Why is he going into a women's restroom?_

Once the door closed, Leia spoke.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She yell-whispered at Harry.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to go in and-" Harry replied in the same voice.

"Harry calm down, take a breath, hexing his ass off isn't going to help anything."

"Well, do you have any suggestions on how I should approach this situation?" Harry said with a sarcastic bite.

"Harry, his heart isn't into this. I don't even know what he's doing, but I know he doesn't _want_ to do it. You should offer him protection, I'm sure Dumbledore already has." His reaction only grew angrier as she went on. "Just hear me out, Draco is a Legilimen. He could help the Order. Making a peace offering to him would be much more productive than doing whatever you're about to do."

"You'd know better than anyone that he'd never agree to it."

"All I know is this, Draco is _ashamed_ of whatever Voldemort has told him to do. He hates himself for it. He wants a way out."

Harry's breathing started becoming normal again. He took a small step back to think it over. Leia relaxed a little.

_Maybe this could work out._

Suddenly, Leia's wand was gone. Then she was bound with not rope, but invisible restraints. She barely had time to process that Harry had just disarmed her and put her in a body bind before he disappeared into the bathroom.

So Leia lay there, defenseless, in a body binding curse while she heard the crashes and bangs of a bathroom being torn apart. Leia couldn't summon her wand while she was like this, and she couldn't unbind herself without her wand. She continued to squirm, uselessly, until a few minutes later Snape came running towards the door. He paused when he saw her.

"Who?" he asked as he unbound her.

"Potter." She spat as she retrieved her wand.

At that, Snape disappeared into the bathroom. While the door was still swinging, Leia walked in to hear one last shatter of something, and then the sobs of a young man. The bathroom was completely flooded, as she walked her footsteps made splashing noises that muffled the cries. Still, Leia recognized that cry. Only now it came in cries of pain between short spurts for air and coughs.

She came into the opening that was lined with sinks and saw a scene she never wanted to see. It was almost romantic, in the aesthetic sense: a painfully attractive teenage boy sprawled out in a gothic style bathroom, on the flooded floor, in an expensive white shirt that was now stained scarlet in random areas while the blood seeped into the water. Leia could imagine this becoming the concept for a fashion editorial, in the pages of some controversial magazine that would have some human rights group in an uproar. Next to Draco was Snape, a completely black figure, save for his skin, that seemed more like a shadow or spirit than a person. He was mending Draco's injuries by casting a spell that was familiar to Leia, but she her heart was beating so loudly in her ears she could barely make out the words.

Off to the side, stood a terrified Harry Potter. He was frozen, the deer in headlights, as he stared at the scene before him: the result of his actions. His face was much like Draco's expression when he saw Katie Bell. It was one of horror, and he stood unmovable. Leia looked upon the three men, too transfixed to fully process the actions that made this reaction. Her name brought her out of her daze.

"Allen, go tell Madam Pomfrey that she will have a new patient, Draco Malfoy, who has internal and external injuries from a curse of dark magic, and that I am bringing him to the hospital wing. Say nothing more." Snape spoke quickly with a sting in his voice. He didn't seem as worried as she would have expected him to be. He seemed abnormally calm given the circimstances.

"Right away, sir." She said, backing out of the bathroom and walking swiftly to the hospital wing. It was the first time in recent memory that she had called anyone 'sir,' much less Professor Snape, but it seemed appropriate.

"Madam Pomfrey, Professor Snape is bringing Draco Malfoy to the Hospital Wing with internal and external injuries caused by a curse using dark magic. Snape told me to warn you that he will be arriving with Malfoy momentarily."

Those two sentences came out remarkably well for how terrified she felt. Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"Grab the dittany draught from the largest cupboard. It should be on the second shelf from the top and on the right side. I'll get the blood replenishing potion. Then prepare his bed, it should be the second from the last on the left."

Pomfrey spoke clearly and calmly. Leia nodded and retrieved a good-sized bottle of dittany draught, and walked over to see that the whole wing was empty. She waved her wand to clean the already clean bed that was assigned for Draco, and set the draught on the table next to his bed. At that moment, Snape came in holding the wounded boy in his arms. Leia waved him over to the bed she was standing next to and Snape brought him over. Draco now lay on the bed, passed out, most likely from the pain.

"Madam Pomfrey is retrieving blood replenishing potion. Here she comes." Leia said, clarifying for Snape who turned to see Madam Pomfrey walking over with a large cup and a few vials.

"How many times did you use _Vulnera Sanentur_?" Madam Pomfrey asked of Snape as she walked towards him.

"Three."

Leia moved out of the way as Madam Pomfrey placed the cup on the table and awoke Draco.

"That should be enough, Severus... Allen, you know where the Dr. Ubbly's is kept, don't you?" She said as she led Draco's mouth to the cup. He was still barely conscious.

"I'll get it." Leia responded, going to a different cabinet that held a whole shelf of small, purple bottles that read 'Dr. Ubbly's Oblivious Unction' on the front label. Leia grabbed two, knowing that Pomfrey tended to go with the 'more is more' school of thought when it came to this potion. When she came back to Draco's beside, Madam Pomfrey was looking over his wounds. His shirt open, revealing several shadows of scars decorated his chest. Scars that were open and bleeding just moments before.

"Yes, Severus, I just gave him dittany draft, there should be no lasting external scars. Internally, his stomach should heal after a good night's rest." Pomfrey was explaining to Snape with an annoyed voice while Leia walked over. "However, his thoughts will leave much deeper wounds, and Dr. Ubbly's can only do so much. Do you know who cast this?"

"No. Miss Allen, you didn't see anything, either, did you?" Snape said turning to Leia with an intense glare.

"No, I didn't see anything." Leia said robotically before setting the two bottles she was holding on the table with the others.

Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes at the two and shook her head before pouring a large amount of Dr. Ubbly's into Draco's cup. She turned to Leia.

"Allen, if you'd administer this, while I go and have a private conversation with Professor Snape, it would be wonderful." Leia could tell by Pomfrey's tone, she was not pleased.

"Of course." She responded, taking the cup from her hands.

Madam Pomfrey led Snape out of the Hospital Wing angrily just as Draco was starting to fully gain consciousness.

"Drink this. It will help you be slightly less traumatized." Leia said without emotion.

"I thought that was your voice." Draco said quietly as he looked up at her and drank from the cup. He made a displeased face at the taste of the potion.

"Most people actually like the taste of this." She said slightly confused.

"It's too sweet."

He turned his head towards Leia to stare for a moment, as she sat down on the chair next to his bed. He looked at her with some expression she couldn't read before speaking.

"So, did I overhear them saying there will be no lasting physical scars?"

Leia rolled her eyes.

"In most cases, injuries caused by dark magic cannot be healed, but because dittany was applied immediately, you'll be fine. You almost died, Draco, some lasting scars should not be your biggest worry."

"Just clarifying." Draco said sighing in relief.

Both were silent for a moment.

"How do you feel?" Leia asked.

"Embarrassed." Draco said while adverting his eyes.

Leia shook her head.

"I need to know if you're still in pain anywhere. I'm your nurse."

Draco's eyebrows went up with realization of the situation.

"Oh, right. Um, right here is still sore," he said grabbing his gut.

"That's your stomach. It should feel better by tomorrow."

"And it's like I can still _feel_ the scars. It doesn't really hurt, but I know where they are without looking at them."

"Hmmm." Leia said thinking. "Do they ache?"

"No, it's like the skin is more sensitive there, like I can feel the fabric differently than where there is no scar."

"You might have some nerve-ending damage that hasn't quite healed yet from Snape's healing spells. Once the blood replenishing potion takes full effect, your body should cure that on its own. I'll tell Madam Pomfrey when she gets back."

"I was about to Cruciate him. That's why he did this." He said abruptly in a quiet voice.

Leia tried to breathe.

"You've used the Cruciatus Curse before?" Leia said in the same quiet voice.

Draco sighed in a whimper.

"They've made me _practice_."

Leia swallowed a tear that was begging to come out, but couldn't reply as Madam Pomfrey appeared without Snape.

"Professor Snape sends his best, but he had to leave." Pomfrey explained when she was in earshot.

"Malfoy felt soreness in near his stomach, and I said that should be healed by tomorrow. He also said that his scares are sensitive, but not in pain. I wonder if some of his nerve-endings haven't recovered fully, but I imagine they should be once his blood has been fully replenished." She said professionally.

"Yes, yes, I agree." She said while looking at Malfoy critically. She pulled out a vial from her pocket and spoke to her patient. "Here is some sleeping potion, you should take it and sleep to let your body fully recover."

She poured a small amount into his cup and saw that he drank it.

"Allen, if you'll help me with something…" She said while walking away from Draco. Leia followed her and once they were out of earshot, Pomfrey stopped and turned to Leia.

"I need you to keep an eye on Draco," Madam Pomfrey started hesitantly, "he should be fine physically, but even with the amount of Dr. Ubbly's that I gave him, he might have night terrors. I have to go talk to a few other teachers regarding this situation. If anyone comes into the Hospital Wing as a guest for Draco, kick them out, but if they come in needing medical help you cannot provide…." She fished out a stone from her pocket. "Alert me by heating this stone. I have its twin in my pocket and I'll feel the heat and know to come back here. However, I know you can handle most cases, so only summon me if a person is on the verge of death. I have some very important business to deal with. You'll do fine."

Leia took this in. This was more reasonability then she was used to. Sure, sometimes Madam Pomfrey would step out for a trip to the loo, and Leia would run the wing alone, but only for a few minutes at a time. Madam Pomfrey had faith in her, and Leia knew Madam Pomfrey wouldn't do this unless she knew Leia's skills were good enough to handle the place on her own. Leia took the stone.

"Sure. How long do you expect to be gone?"

"Probably hours. I can excuse you from your curfew."

"No problem. Have fun, I guess, with your business."

Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows and smirked a little.

"I will not be enjoying myself, trust me. I'll see you later." She said turning and exiting the hospital wing.

"Bye." Leia said as her mentor walked into the hallway.

Leia walked back to Draco to find him snoring. Leia continued walking to the Hospital Wing's office to find her own bag filled with books that she read when there was nothing to do. She grabbed her healing textbook and _Dubliner's_ by James Joyce. She walked back to the chair next to Draco, sat down and started to read her favorite short story, 'The Dead.'


	25. Chapter 25

We are coming towards the end, gang. You all have been lovely, and I love your feed back. Only two more chapters!

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Chapter 25

Video Games by Lana Del Rey

"_His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead_."

That last line of 'The Dead' Leia read aloud for no particular reason. She didn't think anyone else heard it, because the hospital wing was still empty and Draco was asleep. Her own voice felt odd to her ears that were by now well-adjusted to the dead silence of the hospital wing. The only small sounds were of the two breathing, and the occasional snore from Draco. She sighed a little after she finished reading it. She let the beautiful words sink in.

"That was pretty." Draco said, breaking Leia out of her literary reflection and causing her to jump.

"Y-you're awake?"

"Your voice woke me up." Draco didn't sound bitter from being awoken from a deep sleep.

"Oh, sorry, I just feel like that line is best read aloud."

"It's fantastic. Can you read it again?"

"Sure…" She said opening the book again. "_His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead_."

"What is it from?"

"It's the last line from a story in the book _Dubliner's_ by James Joyce."

"It's good."

Leia then remembered that they were in the Hospital Wing and that she was his nurse.

"How do you feel?"

"Marginally better. The scars still feel the same, though."

"Hmm… We'll wait until morning to give you anything more."

"Where is Madam Pomfrey?" Draco asked looking around.

"She's 'had some business to do' whatever that means. She's been gone for the last few hours. So, I am in charge."

Draco raised his eyebrows, slightly impressed.

"I'm glad she thinks you're qualified enough to watch me sleep."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"She had expected you to have night terrors, and wanted me to hold down the fort in case some other student needed medical attention."

"Ah."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"What time is it?" Draco asked lightly.

Leia checked her watch.

"About eleven, gotta date?"

Draco smiled and then frowned.

"Not until later…"

"Oh."

Leia got the feeling he wasn't joking. They were both silent for a moment.

"So will you be in here all night?" Draco asked.

"Pomfrey said she'd excuse me from curfew, but I didn't get the impression that I'd be pulling an all-nighter."

"You should stay. I mean, you probably couldn't sleep without me, anyway."

He was annoyingly right. Leia had mentally avoided the issue, that once school was over she'd be away from Draco. How would she sleep then? Leia rolled her eyes at his cockiness anyway.

"You were snoring earlier. That's never happened before."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that's not super uncommon. The sleeping potion she gave you is strong, but she didn't give you very much."

Draco nodded. There was a pause in the conversation again.

"I'll miss you." Draco said with a sad expression.

"You say that like you'll never see me again."

"You'll never want to see me again... you'll hate me."

_After he finishes his task._

"How do you know that?"

"I already hate myself. Once things happen, you'll hate me too. You'll be morally obligated to hate me." She could feel the pain in his voice. It killed her.

"I thought we had already established that I have pretty awful morals."

Draco almost smiled.

"You have better morals than I do. But you'll hate me, for sure."

"Okay… I'll hate you only if you hate me back."

"I could _never_ hate you."

"Right, so the day that you hate me will be the day I hate you too."

Draco kind of smiled again, and shook his head a little.

"I'll try to hate you, but I probably won't try very hard."

Leia now shared the same kind of smile that Draco wore.

"I have a hard time imagining me hating you, anyway." Leia said, knowing she had said too much.

"I thought we weren't supposed to tell each other how we feel."

"I've never been one for rules, Draco. You should know that by now."

_Nope, you shouldn't have said that._

Draco didn't reply verbally for a moment, but instead looked into her eyes with a lazy gaze. Leia was almost worried he was inside her head, but he seemed too tired to try. He didn't have the intense glare that he wore when he was seeing her thoughts.

"Leia come here." He said, urging her over with his hand motion. She sat on the edge of his bed and held his hands. With some help from Leia, he sat up and now looked at her directly in the eyes.

"I love you." He said clearly. She knew this was coming. She knew it had been a bad idea for her to say the 'fuck the rules' line. She knew he loved her. She had always known. Leia knew that Draco loved her in the most painful sense of the word. His passion would kill him, she knew that.

"I love you, too." She wasn't sure if she was lying or not. She felt as if she had just spoken a language she didn't speak fluently. She had a rough idea of what the words meant, but no clue of the exact translation. Worst of all, she knew this would kill him the most, even if it was the truth.

He kissed her lightly, his lips hesitant. He didn't touch her other than the hands that Leia was lightly holding on to. He was scared, a mood of Draco that Leia wasn't used to. Draco doubted himself, she could feel it, which shouldn't surprising considering that he had just admitted to hating himself. They broke apart, moments later, and Leia rested her head in the crook of Draco's neck.

She sighed.

"Please don't make me sad…"

"I will always love you. That's the only promise I can make."

Leia closed her eyes and urged the rest of the world to disappear. She opened her eyes and saw that it didn't happen. She sighed again and leaned back. She stood up and moved her chair closer to Draco's bed. She knew she couldn't be on his bed in case Madam Pomfrey came back, so she set the chair next to his head and held his hand.

Wordlessly, she wished Draco goodnight, and closed her eyes. She felt him fall asleep just moments before she did.


	26. Chapter 26

FYI, the end of this story is non-canon, but I have an OC so that should be expected. The next chapter is the last, so try to get emotionally prepared for that. Enjoy, guys, and review a bunch.

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Chapter 26

Suite for Solo Cello No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: Prelude by Yo-o Ma

Leia, who had gone to sleep so peacefully, woke up to a crash. She stood up impulsively, noticing that her hand wasn't holding Draco's anymore. He was gone. His bed was empty, but also made up and cleaned. Instead, all that was in her hand was a small folded piece of paper. It only read:

_Don't leave the Hospital Wing tonight. They should only be on the other side of the castle. Please, stay safe._

Even with a rushed hand, Draco's handwriting was perfect. He hadn't even bothered to address it or sign it. She crumpled it in her hand and stuffed it in a pocket. She rid herself of her Slytherin sweater and tie, knowing she'd probably never put them on again. She marched out of the hospital wing towards any noise with her wand out. Only when she had exited the room did she hesitate.

_This is dumb. I should not be doing this._

The sounds of shouting, spells shooting past, and things crashing roared into her ears as she found members of the Order fighting Death Eaters. She noticed Ginny Wesley was being pelted with spells from some older looking man in dark robes. With the element of surprise on Leia's side she easily sent the man flying across the room. She had briefly remembered how she had told Harry that she didn't ever want to be in the line of battle, but that seemed so long ago. Ginny turned to see who had helped her, and then smiled.

"Wondered if you'd show up." Ginny said as stood back to back to Leia as two new Death Eaters approached.

_I didn't think I'd be here either._

"What the fuck is happening?" Leia replied while sending counter-curses towards some stranger.

"Death Eaters got in…." She started while defending herself, "…Order members were called… not sure what's happened since then…"

"Who let them in?"

"Draco." Ginny yelled as spells shot out of her wand.

Leia's stomach dropped and her anger rose. Part of her wondered if she had gotten out of the hospital wing specifically to find him. She didn't really know.

She could feel her blood boiling as she Confringo-ed the wall near the Death Eater she was fighting. It distracted him so Leia could cast a body binding curse. She marched out of the hallway, wordlessly, only stopping shortly to use counter-spells against random Death Eaters. She was on the side of the castle closest to Hagrid's hut and figured he'd be fleeing by now. She was heading outside, and just a hallway away, when she was stopped by a tall woman.

She had an odd look on her face, one of sadistic excitement. It was nothing like Leia had ever seen before. The woman had long untamed black hair that seemed to be pointing in every direction. Her face was probably once very attractive: heavy lidded eyes with long eyelashes, small nose, and high cheekbones. However, with age and hardships, her face must have become gaunt, like her body. She looked sick. Her clothes were black, leather corset and dress covered in patches of different fabrics. Her wand was in her hand as she pointed it to Leia eagerly.

Leia almost pissed herself.

Leia recognized her from the wanted poster: Bellatrix Lestrange.

_Fuck._

"I'm sure it's past your curfew, little girl. Don't you know that good students should be in bed by now?" The older witch cackled to Leia.

"I could… ask you the same-same, question." Leia said hesitantly. She could feel scared tears start to peak out of her eyes.

_What? Did I just say that?_

She couldn't actually ask that because it made no sense. Leia was talking nonsense, but by the time she had realized how stupid she had sounded, it was already out of her mouth. She wasn't really thinking properly.

Bellatrix looked as confused as Leia felt.

"Who are you?" She asked with her eyes in slits.

"I'm…" Leia paused.

Her mind went blank.

"I forgot."

Leia wasn't kidding. She couldn't remember her name for the life of her. Bellatrix just looked more baffled. In frustration, Leia's tears got heavier.

"You forgot?"

"Unfortunately."

There was silence between them for an awkward moment. Then Bellatrix seemed to remember something.

"Oh, you're the American, aren't you?" Her mouth curled. "Oh, I've heard about you."

"Anything good?" Leia said, obviously by this point not thinking through her the words that came out of her mouth.

Bellatrix shook her head smiling in the most frightening way possible, although now Leia's tears were making it harder to see.

"Well, someone informed the Dark Lord that Draco had taken fancy with an American girl at Hogwarts. By some unlikely twist of fate, she was sorted into Slytherin. Only, she had a secret that she didn't even know was shameful. She was the child of a filthy squib and a filthier mudblood-"

"Leia Allen! Oh, duh, that's my name. S-sorry, just remembered, but please go on."

Leia had just interrupted the most dangerous person she had ever met. Bellatrix had the power to torcher her into madness, and Leia just interrupted her. And now Bellatrix knows her name.

_I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, oh-my-fucking-God she's going to torture me and then she's going to kill me. I'm so dead. WHY DO I FORGET MY MANNERS WHEN I'M SCARED SHITLESS?! THIS IS THE TIME WHERE I NEED THEM MOST._

Bellatrix cocked her head to the other side, like she was slightly confused, but then smiled again. Leia was now balling at this point.

"Yes, Leia Allen, that is your name isn't it? Leia Allen… Well, I have been put under the impression that Draco is ever so fond of fucking you for whatever reason. Maybe we could keep you as a captive in Malfoy Manor? He could spend time with you and practice torture techniques at the same time! Wouldn't that be just lovely? Maybe we should have a go now, so you'll get a little preview, shall we?"

Leia didn't have an opportunity to process the words she had just heard.

In a period of roughly three seconds, she experienced the more pain than she had ever felt in her life.

_One._

Leia hit the floor, barely recognizing it. She felt sharp pain on every inch of her body- like millions of knives stabbing her at the same time. It rushed through her. Every nerve ending felt as if it was being pierced with something sharp and hot. At the same time, her skin seemed to tighten on itself, squeezing her insides.

_Two._

Leia was screaming, but she couldn't hear it. Instead all she felt was her insides twisting upon each other. Her stomach seemed to be strangled by her intestines. Her kidneys were pushed around by her liver. Her lungs suffocating her heart. All of her muscles and internal body tissue were tightening and growing at the same time, either way they didn't fit in her body correctly.

_Three._

She then felt her head exploding while caving in on itself. She could feel all of her brain cells being electrocuted at the same time. She could hear her blood pulsing through her ear at a deafening level. Her eyes seemed to be spinning to the back of her head over and over again.

Everything was spinning around her in a blurry buzz of hurt.

And then it stopped as abruptly as it had started.

She felt the cold stone against her cheek and remembered where she was. She opened her eyes and saw that Bellatrix was gone. She tried to stand, but her head was still dizzy. She leaned against the wall for support. After a few deep breaths, she felt different, but passable.

_I really should have stayed in the hospital wing._

Leia felt a hand on her back that made her scream and fall to the ground in surprise. She turned her head slightly to see it was Neville Longbottom. It took her a moment to realize she was still crying.

_Oh._

He had the saddest look on his face. Leia figured part of it was the fact he was looking at her in this state.

"Leia." Neville said quietly in pity.

Leia swallowed deeply.

"W-what happened?"

"Professor Dumbledore-" He cut himself off and was silent for a moment before starting again. "Professor Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of all time, has been murdered by Draco Malfoy."

Leia shuttered.

"Wh-what?"

Dumbledore represented hope and safety. The only man Voldemort feared was dead. Nowhere was safe anymore. She knew this is the point where things turn a take a turn for the worst. Everything was going downhill now at a rate that no one could stop.

Neville swallowed knowing the next words he said would hurt.

"Draco Malfoy was chosen to kill him… he let all of the Death Eaters in too. What happened to _you_?"

Leia, who up to this point had been avoiding eye-contact with Neville, looked up at him. She started to stand as he helped her up, and then stood squarely to him.

"Bellatrix." She said in a clear whisper.

He didn't reply to her name, and Leia didn't need him to.

"Do you need help?" He asked as she started walking away.

"None that you could give me." She said barely looking back at him.

Leia went off in the opposite direction towards the Hospital Wing. As she walked, she saw out a window hundreds of students gathered around something that she couldn't see. They now held their wands in the air, with small white lights at their tips. It resembled a muggle candle light vigil that happens after tragedies.

She didn't pause to watch.


	27. Chapter 27

This is the last chapter guys! Thank you so much for taking this journey with me, and I love and cherish every single review, follow, and favorite I get. Ugh, that last sentence was sappy, but really I do appreciate your readership. I am currently working on Part III that might show up in the next couple of months. And feel free to review with suggestions of what you think should happen next, that would be amazing/awesome. I love you guys, thanks so much.

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Chapter 27

Great Mistake by Sky Ferreira

Leia was waiting at the Hogsmeade train station with her trunk filled with all of her belongs. She sat on the large trunk with one of several small, purple vials in her hands, making weak attempts to process what had happened in the last 24 hours. She had almost polished off a full pack of cigarettes this morning alone. Uhura slept, curled up next to Leia, unaware of everything that had happened. She hadn't bothered to change clothes and was still in the dirty skirt and shirt she had been wearing last night.

School still had another week or so, but there was no way that Leia was ever going to walk into that building again. She had grabbed some bottles of Dr. Ubbly's Oblivious Unction, gathered her things, and left without speaking to anyone. She hadn't bothered to stay for Dumbledore's funeral. She wouldn't have been able to handle it. So she ran away.

The station was small with only one track and one worker. She was the only one there and the place was eerily quiet. She couldn't focus enough to even pick up a book, much less read it. She had written a small note to her brother that she'd be on the next train home with the station's owl. She had been there for several hours already, but still had an hour or so until the train came. She sat staring at the train track until she heard footsteps coming in her direction. The footsteps were determined. She didn't look up, but instead lit another cigarette.

"Leia." Theo spoke in a shaky voice that Leia didn't reply to. "Leia, we need to talk."

Leia almost rolled her eyes.

Theo sat down next to her on the station ground. Theo looked tired, but he at least had fresh clothes on.

"Rumor has it that Bellatrix Lestrange Cruciated you." He said flatly. He looked to the ground shamefully. Leia noticeably twitched at the sound of the name.

"It couldn't have been for longer than three seconds." Leia muttered.

"That doesn't make it _not_ hurt."

Leia shook her head.

"My body feels different… it's almost like my body feels open or something. I can't really describe it properly."

"I'm so sorry."

She into Theo's eyes and saw the beginning of tears.

"For me getting Cruciated or for letting me be romantically involved with an assassin."

He was quiet for a second.

"Both…"

"So he really did it?" Leia asked hoping he could prove her wrong.

"Yes."

"And you knew from the beginning, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you do anything?" Leia asked in just above a whisper.

"My father's in Askaban. If Draco were to succeed then my father wouldn't be tortured by dementors. Draco was a better functioning person with you than he was without you."

"So everything worked out for you, didn't it?"

"Don't think for a second that I'm proud of what I did. I'm sorry..."

"Is that all you came to tell me?"

"No... Leia, my father had been slowly training me in Legilimency, Occulementcy, and memory charms since I was a child. I'm much better at it than Draco."

"Alright." She said slowly, really horrified wondering where this was going. Those types of magic are extremely difficult. His father, childhood BFF of Voldemort, was probably an expert. Theo was beginning to choke up.

"Leia, I-I've been altering your memory."

Leia looked him in the face for the first time in this conversation. Anger built up in her. Tears were falling out of his eyes.

"_What_?"

"Leia, I _had_ to. You put it together, like three times. You even read the bloody antiquing book…"

"_What?_"

"I couldn't let you destroy the plan."

"W-what memories aren't true?"

"You never took a nap this year."

Leia paused. She could barely remember taking any naps this year. Maybe two or three times…

"Why didn't you…." Leia paused. She didn't really want the answer to this question. "change more? W-Why didn't you change it when I thought Draco was reading my thoughts?"

Theo took a shaky breath.

"I could only alter things that happened when you were alone. If I altered your memories of when you were with others I'd have to alter their memory as well. It's really bloody difficult, Leia and with each time I wasn't improving."

"How could you do this to me?" she spat.

Theo coughed in surprise.

"How could I do this to _you_? More like how could I do this to _him_!"

Leia glared at him in response.

"Leia, he loves you more than anything in his life. But, I've been inside your head, you don't even know what love is. He bloody _worships_ you. You'll move on with trust issues, but Draco will hate himself forever. He isn't going to move on. Yes, I changed some of your memories, but I didn't set you up for the pain Draco's going to feel."

Leia shook her head and looked in a different direction.

"And I'm supposed to _pity_ him? He murdered Albus-fucking-Dumbledore. If he really loved me then he would be fighting this war alongside me."

"You don't get it, do you? Excuse me, Leia Lilith Allen, let me explain something to you. If Draco Malfoy would have failed they would have killed him, his family, and _you_. That's why he did it, to fucking _protect_ you. You're still _breathing_ because Dumbledore isn't."

"Who did you tell?" Leia asked turning the tables on Theo.

"About what?"

"Me and Draco. You ratted us out, didn't you?" She said thinking of Lestrange's words.

"I only told one person about you and Draco."

"Was it You-Know-Who, per chance?"

"No."

"Snape?"

"No."

"…Astoria?"

"No, but she suspected it."

"Who then?"

"You know how Parkinson all of the sudden stopped bullying you when you and Draco started to share a couch?"

"Sorry?"

"You know _why_ she stopped? She felt _bad_ for you. Pansy Parkinson stopped harassing you because she pitied you."

"You told _Pansy_?" Leia growled.

"She knew about Draco's assignment, and she was bloody sorry for you. That's why she left you alone."

Leia paused in anger for a moment and then asked another question she didn't want the answer to.

"So our friendship this year… that was just bullshit? Because it kind of seems like you don't like me very much now."

"Leia, my dad's being tortured in Askaban. Winning this battle means freedom for my father. I enjoy you as a friend, Leia, but I want my dad out of Askaban more than I want some conversations about Pynchon."

"What if your father dies in the war? What if I'm killed because of my blood line? What if Harry Potter wins? I hope it'll still be worth it then, for you. But really, tell me how you could do this to Draco and still look at yourself in the mirror."

Theo swallowed.

"I can't."

Leia's expression changed. She hadn't expected that as an answer.

"I hate myself for this." Theo said, starting to cry again. "Because I did this, Dumbledore is dead and many more will join him. I'm not a good person, Leia."

"So Astoria doesn't know."

Theo took a deep breath.

"No, only because when she does she'll hate me, and I want her to love me for as long as I can. I think she's the only person who could hate me more than I hate myself."

Leia knew deep down that she would never tell Astoria. That wasn't her story to tell. The conversation was quiet for a moment. Leia didn't know if it was because he was trying to find the words to tell her something awful, or if he was about to say goodbye. Leia hoped it was the latter.

"Is that all you came to tell me?" She said in a scared voice.

"No. I came to warn you. You and your family need to go into hiding."

Leia feared this.

"Hiding?"

"Leia, remember the Valentine's Day fiasco?"

Leia swallowed loudly. She hated knowing how Theo knew everything.

"It was Snape then." She said quietly.

"Yes. I don't know if there is still a bounty on your head, possibly not because Bellatrix would have already killed you, but that won't last long. They know who you are, they know where you live, they know your family, Leia. If they want to they could find and capture you and kill your family within the hour. You need to save yourself and your loved ones by hiding. If they go searching for you and don't find you, they'll go after your family next. Don't tell anyone where you're going. You need to go into hiding until the war is over."

She took a deep breath. She already figured this would happen, but it need to come out of someone else's mouth.

"It's not like I'd come back anyway."

"You mean you'll never live in the wizarding world again?"

"Fuck no. There is nothing keeping me here."

Both were silent for a moment. Theo stood up to leave but Leia spoke before he could.

"Goodbye."

"I'm sorry I'm a bad person." He said looking down on her.

"At this point, I think we're all kind of bad people."

Theo nodded sadly and took a step backwards. He then turned and escaped briskly from Leia's presence.

As Theo left more people were arriving at the station. A few of them were sad looking students, some with parents, who weren't willing to stay at Hogwarts any longer. They made eye contact, but didn't say anything. A few local people were there too who had the same solemn expression as the students.

_Word travels fast._

Even with twenty or so people at the station, it was silent until the train arrived. Leia was in the process of putting her trunk in the luggage section when a hand gripped one of the handle to help her maneuver it. She looked up to see familiar eyes looking at her with the saddest expression.

He looked tired. He must have jumped on the earliest train to get here in time. He didn't even comb through his hair with his fingers. He had probably slept in the old Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt he was now wearing. His hand movements were kind of jittery, a mood Leia wasn't used to.

Luke led his sister to the train compartment that he had been sitting in earlier. He sat in the seat next to her, petting Uhura who sat on Leia's lap. She had a blank expression. Neither said a word through this whole altercation.

It was only until the train was moving that Leia spoke.

"Draco was the assassin. Draco bewitched Katie Bell to give a necklace to Dumbledore. Draco poisoned the mead. Draco let in the Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Draco killed Dumbledore. You-Know-Who knows who I am. We need to go into hiding or else you-know-who will capture me and kill our entire family."

Luke looked at her like he wasn't really listening and nodded sadly.

"We've all missed you, Leia."

Uhura sat in Leia's lap, unconcerned, as both the cat and Leia fell asleep on the train home.

The End


End file.
